Chennai: Members of public who attended the public hearing on proposed power tariff hike on Friday questioned what is the need for holding a hearing when their objections are not considered.
Consumers and representatives of various organisation cited the hearing held in the last two years and said that tariff was hiked despite overwhelming opposition-registered public.
In the hearing organised by TN Electricity Regulatory Commission, A.C. Kasinathan, secretary of CITU-North Chennai said that public hearing has been held even as the city witnessed heavy rain fall for the past few day. Is it right to hold a hearing with limited participation of public due to rain, he asked. He said that power tariff hike should be avoided and efforts should be taken to provide uninterrupted power supply to all the consumers.
Power hike will only affect the common people who are already burdened by price rise, said R. Kumar, a consumer. “Like frequent petrol prices hike, now the commission is hiking power tariff every year,” he said, criticising the commission for not giving enough publicity about the hearing.
Muralimohan, a farmer from Chengalpet, asked the TNERC to ensure uninterrupted power supply before taking up power revision. “Due to loadshedding, people are loosing their livelihood,” he said.
M. Thuyamurthy, general secretary, Association of Transparency and Anti-corruption, said that Tangedco has not kept its word on distribution of CFL bulbs to consumers to conserve power.
