You can’t slap tariff hike if you can’t add a single unit of power: Tewari tells govt
Thursday, 11/04/2013
http://punjabnewsline.com/news/You-can___t-slap-tariff-hike-if-you-can___t-add-a-single-unit-of-power_-Tewari-tells-govt.html
LUDHIANA: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari today lashed out at the Punjab government for increasing the power tariff for the seventh time in last six years without generating even a single unit of extra electricity.
He said, the power tariff in Punjab during the last six years of Akali rule had gone up by about 80 per cent. The minister asked the government as how it thought it morally right to increase the tariff in such proportion when it was not able to provide even regular power supply to the people.
“Every summer the people have to sweat out in scorching heat without power and still the government has no scruples to increase the tariff”, he said.
Reacting sharply to the recent hike in the power tariff, which is seventh in the last six years, Tewari said, the first thing this government does at the beginning of every financial year is to slap extra tariff on consumers even when they do not get sufficient power. The Minister asked the government as what happened to the promises of Punjab being power surplus.
“Leave aside being power surplus power does not have power for the summers; neither for the domestic and nor for the industrial sector”, he remarked, while pointing out towards the practice of 2-3 day power cuts every week to the industrial sector.
