By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 12 Sep: A delegation of the Mahanagar Congress led by former Mahanagar Congress President Lalchand Sharma, met Chief Secretary Radha Raturi here, today, and submitted a memorandum demanding relief from the alleged “double-triple taxes” being imposed on consumers by the Electricity Department. The delegation also demanded withdrawal of the decision to install smart prepaid meters. The delegation said that inflation is at its peak in the country, and the common person is struggling for two meals a day.
Sharma claimed that, despite the fact that Uttarakhand is an electricity producing state, electricity rates are skyrocketing and the electricity department is exploiting the general public by imposing many types of taxes in electricity bills.
Former MLA Rajkumar demanded that as a benefit to the people of the state from hydroelectric projects, electricity supply should be provided at the price of Rs 1.50 per unit for domestic consumption while the farmers of the state should be given free electricity for farming. Sharma also said that work has been started on the plan to install smart prepaid meters, but this is an unnecessary financial burden on consumers. He said that complaints of many types of irregularities have been also received in the past regarding digital meters installed earlier.
Lal Chand Sharma urged the Chief Secretary to provide to the people relief from double-triple taxes being imposed on consumers by the Electricity Department and to withdraw the decision of installing smart prepaid meters. He said that the Electricity Department charges rent from consumers every month for several years in the form of meter charge, whereas the cost of the electric meter is recovered in a short time. Along with this, a huge amount is collected as security at the time of taking electricity connection, and additionally the department is also collecting extra money in the bills coming every month, which does not seem fair.
