Vijayawada: Left demands rollback of power charges

Vijayawada: CPI State secretary K Ramakrishna alleged that the State government has increased power charges seven times since the YSRCP came to power, causing a burden of Rs 50,000 crore on power consumers. He demanded the State government to rollback power charges and withdraw the proposal of installing smart meters.

Ramakrishna along with CPM State secretary V Srinivasa Rao and leaders of 10 Left parties participated in a dharna at Lenin Centre here on Wednesday, condemning the power charges collected by the State government.

Speaking to the media, Ramakrishna alleged that the State government is prepared to implement the power policies proposed by the BJP-led Union government in the State. He alleged the State government decided to loot people on the pretext of installing smart meters. He said the price of a smart power meter in Chandigarh is Rs 7,100 and it is Rs 7,900 in Madhya Pradesh. But its price in AP is Rs 32,000. He warned that the agitation against power charges will be taken to village level and reminded that petrol and diesel prices in Andhra Pradesh are more compared to Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka. He appealed to the people, power consumers to join the protests and agitation opposing the smart meters and collection of very high power charges.

CPM State secretary V Srinivasa Rao, CPI (ML) State leader P Prasad, CPI State secretariat member G Obulesu and others spoke on the occasion.

CPI (ML) State secretary Ch Venkateswarlu, MCPI (U) State secretary Sk Khadar Basha, CPI city secretary G Koteswara Rao, CPM NTR district secretary Donepudi Kasinath and others participated in the protest.