While shedding crocodile tears on the plight of farmers in the State and blaming it on the Congress party for dividing the united Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is silently giving a rude shock to the people by going in for a steep hike in power tariff.
The AP government submitted a proposal to the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) to increase the tariff to the tune of Rs 7209 crore in the name of True-Up charges.
As it is mandatory for the APERC to hold a public hearing before giving green signal to the Government to go ahead with the hike, the issue was brought before the representatives of the people's organisations on Saturday.
The Discoms argued at the programme that they had incurred a loss of Rs 7209 crore during the 2009-14 period as they had to purchase power from private parties and that unless the tariff is increased it is difficult for them to meet the demand.
However, the representatives of several people's organisations who attended the public hearing mentioned that as much as Rs 17,000 crore was collected from the consumers in the past five years in the name of Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) and that the latest proposal to increase the tariff in the name of True Up charges is not correct.
