IAC mulls door-to-door protest against power tariff hike

After a satisfactory showdown at Jantar Mantar against the power tariff hike by power DISCOMs here on Sunday, Arvind Kejriwal led India Against Corruption is set to take the protest door to door in the capital.

While talking to TSI, IAC member Ankit Lal said, “We will take this protest to each and every house. We will go to each and every colony and will ask people to start civil disobedience against power tariff hike.”

“We will give 15-20 days to the government to roll back the hike if it does not do that we will meet Chief Minister to put our demands forward,” he added.

On Sunday, Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the government connived with power DISCOMS to loot the people. He also urged the people to stop paying electricity bills saying if entire city stops paying; the Delhi government will come to know people's power.

Around 300 to 400 people were present during the protest at Jantar Mantar where people burnt their inflated electricity bills.

IAC spokesperson Aswathi Muralitharan said, “The government is hand in gloves with DISCOMs and DERC. When distribution was allowed to private companies, electricity department's property worth Rs 2000 crore was given to TATA and Reliance on a rent of Re 1 per month.”

“These companies were making huge profits. However, after showing losses fraudulently in 2011-2012 they demanded to increase prices by 50 to 70 percent. When Chairman of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission Barjindar Singh got these companies accounts audited they found a lot of discrepancies and prepared an order to decrease prices by 23 percent. Sheila Dikshit on the other hand took companies' side and stopped the order to be passed,” she said.

“When the case went to the court, DERC chairman was asked to prepare a new order. However, unfortunately he retired before he could prepare the new order and his successor P Sudhakar gave an order to increase prices by 200 percent,” she added.

IAC has made many such claims and has held BJP responsible for the hike by not opposing the government's decision despite knowing the truth. They have demanded a roll back in power tariff and audit of these companies by CAG.

Power companies, on the other hand, are tight lipped over the issue.

Related Stories:

Power tariff hiked by 26 pc in Delhi