Opposition parties unite on struggle against Congress

CPI district Secretary Eeshwaraiah said that the Congress government failed to handle the power crisis in the State and Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy was unilaterally increasing all charges, putting a heavy burden on the common man Tirupati: In a rare display of solidarity, all opposition parties � TDP, BJP, YSRCP, CPI and CPM � came together and participated in protests at several places in the city condemning the recent orders of AP Electricity Regulatory Commission in hiking of power tariff. Activists of these parties joined hands and organised protest rallies and hunger strikes at several places simultaneously to mount pressure on the State government demanding immediate withdrawal of such orders issued by the APERC. The activists of various political parties staged protests at the APSRTC bus station, Leela Mahal Circle, RDO's Office and at Municipal Office Circle on Monday. As a novel protest, local functionaries of AITUC, a trade wing affiliated to CPI, took put a half-naked procession at the RDO's office and opened a petty shop to sell kerosene lamps. Speaking at the occasion, K Murali, CPM state leader, said that the State government should reject the orders of APERC. He criticized the State government for expressing its inability in controlling the APERC as it is a statutory body. In fact, it was functioning with the support of State government as per the directions of World Bank, he alleged. Already people are struggling a lot to pay the additional burden like Fuel Surcharge Adjustment and were not in a position to bear any more burden, he said. BJP spokesperson Bhanu Prakash said that the ruling Congress has betrayed the people by going back on its promise made in 2009 that there would be no hike in power tariff. Certainly, the people would teach a bitter lesson in the 2014 elections, he said. D Bhaskar, TDP local leader alleged that the APERC had the full backing of the State government in hiking the power tariff although it expressed its inability in controlling the APERC. Anantapur: Protesting against the unscheduled power cuts and the hike in power tariff, the leaders and activists of left parties organized mass protest rallies near the MRO office in Anantapur and raised slogans against the government on Monday. Speaking to the media, CPI (M) district secretary Obulakonda Reddy came down heavily on the government for remaining indifferent on the issue of power tariff hike although several political parties including Congress leaders opposed the move. He said that the Chief Minister should give up his rigid and adamant attitude and withdraw the decision to increase the power tariff. Speaking on the occasion, CPI district secretary Jagadish demanded that the government should make alternate arrangements of providing electricity to the farmers. The government should lift the unscheduled power cuts in the district immediately, he said. He warned that they would intensify the agitation if the power cuts were not lifted immediately. Nellore: Demanding the immediate rollback of the hike in power tariff, the district unit of Communist Party of India (CPI) staged protests at different places in Nellore town on Monday. The party activists staged a sit-in protest at Collectorate, VRC and Gandhi Statue centres in the town. Addressing the gathering at the Collectorate, CPI leader Chandra Rajagopal lambasted the State government for putting heavy burden on the people with the abnormal hike in power tariff and demanded it to roll back its decision immediately. He said the Left parties called for a bandh on April 9 in protest against the hike in power tariff and appealed to the people to extend their support and make the proposed bandh a grand success. Kadapa: Protesting against the hefty hike in the power tariff and the frequent hike in petrol and diesel charges, the district unit of the CPI laid siege to the Collectorate here on Monday. The CPI activists in large numbers came to the Collectorate after taking out a huge rally from ITI Circle in Kadapa town and staged a protest in front of it accusing Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy for taking anti-people decisions. ddressing the gathering at the Collectorate, CPI district Secretary Eeshwaraiah said that the Congress government failed to handle the power crisis in the State and Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy was unilaterally increasing all charges, putting a heavy burden on the common man. The district unit of TDP also took part in the protest demanding the allotment of house sites to the poor and the immediate rollback of power charges. TDP leaders Govardhan Reddy, Suban Basha and Amir Babu alleged that the ruling party leaders promised on several occasions that the house sites would be provided to all eligible people in the district, but they had done nothing so far. CPI leaders Krishna Murthy, Chandra Venkata Shiva, Ravishankar Reddy and others were present.