Housewives join protest against high power tariff

MUMBAI: In one of the major protests against steep electricity bills, a huge crowd, including citizens and some housewives who spontaneously joined in, besieged the Reliance Infrastructure office at Kandivli on Monday afternoon. Led by Congress MPs Sanjay Nirupam and Priya Dutt and three MLAs (pic above), the crowd flashed "inflated" bills and shouted slogans against Reliance. Several citizens brought past copies of monthly electricity bills to show how charges of Rs 300-500 had now gone up to Rs 1,000-1 ,500.

After facing a barrage of queries from protestors, a senior Reliance official clarified to TOI that it had no role to play in tariff hike. "It is determined by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) after publishing advertisements in prominent newspapers and conducting a series of public hearings. The recent revision (August 22, 2013) was made after a gap of four years." Nirupam demanded withdrawal of "fixed charges" and "regulatory asset charge" (see box) collected from consumers every month. "These are unwarranted and should be rolled back immediately. Reliance officials are unable to justify the charges," he said.

But the two were part of the tariff determined by MERC, the official said, adding that the disgruntled should have "participated in the public hearings".

The MP kept up his tariff slash demand, pointing out that unlike other parts of Maharashtra , nearly 96% consumers in Mumbai paid electricity bills on time and distribution losses here due to power thefts were less compared to other districts.

Dutt demanded uniform tariff across the island city and suburbs. "The agitation will be extended to my constituency in Mumbai northwest ," she said.

Some protesters complained about the electronic meters and the reading system. "Whether it's summer or winter, the bill remains unchanged. Wonder how they bill us without any meter reading?" said Charkop resident Sunita Deshmukh. Reliance said the meters, including Chinese ones, meet all quality norms and are "within permissible accuracy limit".

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Housewives join protest against high power tariff

Dengan url

http://cegahkeropostulang.blogspot.com/2014/01/housewives-join-protest-against-high.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Housewives join protest against high power tariff

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Housewives join protest against high power tariff

sebagai sumbernya