Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) demanded the state govt to immediately withdraw Rs 5,240 crore true up power charges, which will be collected from consumers beginning from November month bill.
Former minister T Harish Rao said the BRS would take up agitation if the decision was not reversed and also urged other opposition parties, including the Left parties, to join the BRS-led movement against the tariff burden.
Harish Rao said when BRS was in power, between 2016 to 2022, there was proposal by the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Authority (TGERC) to collect Rs 12,718 crore true up charges, but the then CM K Chandrasekhar Rao did not agree for that.
“On one side there are power cuts and on the other, people are being hit with higher electricity bills,” he said, questioning CM Revanth Reddy ’s govt over its decision to recover the expenditure on power purchases from consumers,” he said. Speaking at a press conference at Telangana Bhavan on Tuesday, Harish Rao said the govt should have announced relief to people during the Dasara and Diwali festive season instead of increasing their electricity burden.
He recalled the 2000 Basheerbagh police firing during protests against electricity tariff hikes and said the power issue had played an important role in the Telangana movement. The number of 400-KV substations increased from six to 30, while 220-KV substations rose from 51 to 103 and 132-KV substations from 176 to 251 during the BRS regime, according to Harish Rao. He also recalled BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao had decided to launch a public movement against the proposed burden on power charges hike. Criticising the Congress govt, he alleged that no significant new generation capacity or substations had been added since it came to power. He accused the govt of attributing power shortages to El Niño while failing to utilise available water and coal for power generation. He also claimed that several major thermal and solar generation projects were commissioned during the period.