By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun 26 Apr: BJP today hit back at the Congress for opposing hike in power tariff in Uttarakhand. Speaking informally with the media persons here today, BJP’s State Media In charge Manveer Chauhan asserted that power tariff in the states ruled by the Congress is much higher when compared to the power tariff in Uttarakhand.
Chauhan claimed that instead of protesting the hike in power tariff in Uttarakhand and spreading confusion regarding this, the Opposition leaders should introspect and should tell the people, why the power tariff in Congress ruled states is higher than in Uttarakhand.
Manveer Singh Chauhan said, BJP has brought the state out of the crisis and chaos in energy management that prevailed during Congress rule. He also claimed that the BJP Government is ensuring uninterrupted power supply in the state. The BJP Government has also grounded several major power projects that were pending for decades during the Congress rule. Soon these projects along with fresh solar energy projects, will become operational and the state will take a major stride towards self reliance in power generation.
Describing Congress’s allegations as politically motivated and far from the truth, he said that every year the Electricity Regulatory Commission decides the electricity rates as per the circumstances, power availability and consumption. This time, the electricity rate in the state has been increased less than last year, and in spite of the hike, the power tariff in the state is lower than in most states, particularly lower than the states being ruled by the Congress, like Karnataka, Jharkhand and Telangana. In most states, majority of the consumers are having to pay much higher prices for electricity. Chauhan asked the Congress leaders to first request their governments to reduce the electricity prices before criticising the Uttarakhand Government for the hike.
Chauhan claimed that while in power in Uttarakhand, Congress did nothing during its governments to make the state energy self-reliant, but kept all the big power generation projects pending. Also, the Congress governments further mismanaged the contracts signed with various state entities in the energy sector by adopting an irresponsible attitude. But today, under the guidance of PM Modi and CM Dhami, many long pending hydropower projects like Jamrani, Lakhwad Vyasi, Kisau dam projects are being grounded. He said that the BJP hopes that with the completion of these projects in the coming years, the state will become fully self-reliant in the energy sector. Also, PM will definitely be successful in reducing self-reliance on conventional electricity through solar panels under Sarvodaya Yojana.
