Delhi Cong demands roll back of power tariff

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) Scores of Congress workers andfarmers held a protest today outside the residence of ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal, demanding a roll back of "arbitraryhike" in power tariff and reduction in the load capacity oftube-wells used by farmers for irrigation purposes. The protestors, led by DPCC chief Ajay Maken, came intractors and bullock carts, holding flags and placards, andraised slogans against the AAP government. Maken alleged that the AAP government had "turned ablind eye" to NDPL’s "arbitrary" hike of power tariffs fromagricultural to non domestic low tension category andreduction in the load capacity of tube-wells used by farmersfor irrigation purposes to 10 kw from 20 kw for the purpose ofavailing subsidy. According to a July 20 NDPL order on the change of ratecategory from agriculture to NDLT, the farmers were no longer"eligible to be considered under agriculture rate category",DPCC said in a statement. This arbitrary revision in the load capacity oftube-wells without the knowledge of farmers, and bringing themunder the ambit of commercial category, has "inflicted" a very"heavy financial burden" on the farmers who use tube-wells forirrigating their agricultural fields, Maken alleged. He claimed farmers, who were having power loads of 6 to 8kw, and those who were getting bills for Rs 1000 to Rs 2000,were now being forced to shell out sums to the tune of Rs40,000 and above as their power loads have been "arbitrarilyrevised" to 10 kw and above, to bring them above the subsidycategory, so that they could be charged at commercial rates. The DPCC chief said the AAP government can "interveneand play a role in decision-making in this case, but it isnot." "We, therefore, would wait and see if the AAP governmentresponds or not. And, if it doesn’t, then several of thesefarmers and our party workers would go to Punjab and exposethe lies of the Delhi government," Maken said. PTI KNDSC