People's Democracy

DELHI

Protest against Power Tariff Hike

ON June 28, the Delhi state unit of the CPI(M) staged a demonstration at the ITO to protest against the massive increase in power tariffs announced by the DERC two days ago. Hundreds of men and women participated in the demonstration.

The protestors were addressed by Anurag Saxena (CITU), Sehba Farooqui (JMS), Puran Chand (DYFI), Arjun Sengupta (SFI) and P M S Grewal (CPI-M). the party’s state secretariat member, Vijender Sharma, presided over the protest meeting.

The speakers strongly condemned the Delhi state government for heaping a huge burden upon the people of Delhi. Power tariffs have increased by an unheard of 64 per cent in just 10 months. Coming in the backdrop of high inflation, especially in food items, this hike in power tariffs is nothing but a brazen attack on the livelihood of the people. The alacrity, with which the chief minister has defended the hikes in power tariffs, makes it amply clear that she has no concern for the people of Delhi. Instead, she is behaving more like an agent of private power companies.

The speakers demanded immediate withdrawal of the recent power tariff hike. This must be followed by an independent and transparent audit of the accounts of the power companies which, as is known, have been fudging their books to conceal the massive profits that they are actually making.

The demonstration ended with the resolve to take the campaign against the power hike to wider sections of the people in order to build pressure on and to force the government to withdraw these atrocious hikes in power tariffs.