Bhubaneswar, April 16: The Odisha government today filed a review petition before the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission to reconsider its decision to increase power tariff in the agriculture sector.
The commission has raised the power tariff for the domestic consumers by 20 paise per unit and 40 paise in the agriculture sector.
Odisha energy minister Pranab Prakash Das said: "Keeping in view the farmers' interests in the state, the government today filed the review petition with the commission to roll back the hike for the agricultural sector and adjust the same by cross-subsidising in the tariff order."
Stating that there should be no politics on the government decision to file the petition, he said: "The state government is always committed to protect the farmers' interests. The decision to file the review petition was taken according to the announcement made in the Assembly."
The petition filing, however, coincided with the state BJP's demonstration outside the Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) office.
The BJP activists today marched to the Cesu office and gheraoed it, demanding that the power distribution company immediately withdraw the hike. "The commission and the government should go for an energy audit of the power distribution companies before increasing power tariff," said BJP leader Pruthviraaj Harichandan.
Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said: "The government was forced to file the petition as they had made a commitment in this regard in the Assembly. But, the late filing of the petition cast doubts on their intentions. However, we will continue with our demand for rollback of the entire tariff hike."
Mishra said it was unfortunate that the tariff even for the BPL beneficiaries of the Kutir Jyoti Yojana had been hiked, the rates going up from Rs 65 to Rs 80 for consumption up to 30 units per month. "Our fight will continue till the government completely withdraws the hike," he said.
While the BJP had earlier organised a demonstration at Raj Bhavan on the issue, the Congress had also held protest rally on this issue.
The state has been on a boil ever since the commission raised the power tariff. Farmers, who used to pay Rs 1.10 per unit of power, would now be paying Rs 1.50 for the same.
For the domestic consumers, the commission will charge at the rate of Rs 2.50 per unit for consumption up to 50 units. The tariff will be Rs 4.20 per unit for consumption between 51 and 200 units and will go up to Rs 5.20 for consumption between 201 to 400 units.
For consumption beyond that the rates per unit will be Rs 5.60. For the BPL beneficiaries of the yojana, the rates go up from Rs 65 to Rs 80 for consumption up to 30 units per month. It has already been implemented since April 1.
The commission announced the decision to go for a hike after it cancelled the licence of the three power distribution companies - Nesco, Wesco, and Southco, owned by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd Reliance-Infra, accusing them of failing to make any improvement in the power sector. Now, the matter is in the court of law.
The tariff hike rocked the Assembly. Even senior BJD leader and former energy minister Sujya Narayan Patro had slammed the hike. "Though power tariff for agriculture purposes had not been revised for the past 15 years, an increase should have better been avoided," he said.
The BJD in its 2014 election manifesto had promised free power for farming operations.
The promise in its manifesto has put the government on the backfoot. The state had also witnessed a series of protests, forcing the government to declare that it would file a review petition before the commission.
