Congress demands Telangana CM to convene cabinet meeting to waive off inflated electricity bills

HYDERABAD: The Congress has strongly condemned the silence on the part of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao over complaints of inflated electricity bills and demanded that he immediately convene the cabinet meeting to waive off electricity bills for all the BPL families, micro, small and medium enterprises.
The Congress also demanded that the government adopt the telescopic method to calculate tariff per unit of power consumed.
“People have now started getting bills for the month of June. Most of these bills includes huge arrears as people were not able to pay their bill for the lock down period. The economic condition of the common is far from coming back to normalcy. Now, the state government should not add to their woes,” said Telangana Congress president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy.
The Congress leaders and members protested at various places in the state against inflated electricity bills and later submitted copies of memorandum addressed to CM KCR, to the electricity officials demanding 100 per cent waiver of electricity to BPL families, MSMEs and to shift from telescopic to non-telescopic method of billing.
“A majority of the poor had no source of income during lockdown. They survived on the free rice, Rs 1,500 financial assistance from the government and help extended by political parties, NGOs and individuals. Those who got Rs 1,500 assistance during lockdown, were shocked to receive electricity bills of up to Rs. 5,000 and even more in many cases,” Uttam said.
While some of the consumers paid the bills either fully or partly, a majority of them are yet to clear their dues. They are now facing the threat of disconnection of power supply. The Congress will intensify agitation if the government did not waive off electricity bills of the poor, Uttam said.