Lucknow: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the increase in electricity rates and power meters in Uttar Pradesh are synonymous with terror and the densely populated state has become a laboratory of electricity meters.
In a statement issued on Friday, Ms Vadra said that there has been a huge increase in electricity rates in the last few years in the state. In the last eight years, the rate of rural domestic consumers has increased by 500 per cent, urban domestic electricity rates have gone up by 84 per cent and the electricity provided to farmers by 126 per cent. The rising rate of power in the entire state has caused outrage.
The Congress leader claimed that Uttar Pradesh has become like a laboratory for electricity meters. Electricity meters have been found to run many times faster. The houses which are locked, have not consumed any electricity are still getting bills of Rs 7000-8,000. In many districts of the state, it was also seen that bills come even where no electricity meters are installed.
She averred that the people are fed up with inflation. The businesses of small traders have collapsed. The crops of the farmers are not being bought, they do not get any help in cases of floods, hailstorms and natural disasters, Fasal Beema Yojana has become a means of earning for big companies. In such a situation, the consumers can no longer bear the brunt of constant increase in electricity rates and meter irregularities.
The grand-old-party’s general secretary said that it would have been ideal that the public should have been provided relief by a substantial reduction in the rates of electricity bills, especially during the novel coronavirus epidemic. In many cases the electricity bills of farmers should have been waived. Weavers, artisans, small scale industries should have got concessions in electricity bill payment.
Ms Vadra said the Congress demands that the rate of electricity received by the farmers be halved with immediate effect. The truth of the electricity meter scam should be exposed and action taken against the culprits. Concession in electricity payment should be given to weavers-artisans, small-scale industries and those deserving of such concessions.
