Hyderabad: BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday appealed to the people not to pay the additional consumption deposit (ACD) while paying their electricity bills, to protest the new levy by the BRS government.
Sanjay questioned why consumers are having to pay an additional charge to bail out power distribution companies (discoms) that were run into the ground due to the ‘inefficiency’ of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
“Consumers are already burdened with increased power tariff to the extent of Rs 6,000 crore and the government is getting ready to impose an additional burden of Rs 16,000 crore from April. Now, people are forced to cough up the huge burden in the name of ACD charges,” he alleged.
Sanjay also accused the BRS of blatantly lying about providing free power for agriculture.
“The fact is that the government owed more than Rs 60,000 crore to the distribution companies to compensate for the free power supply, leading to their virtual bankruptcy. The government departments themselves are due to pay Rs 20,000 crore to discoms. If the BJP comes to power, we shall clear all these dues,” he said.
Sanjay said that as per the National Crime Records Bureau figures, the state ranked fourth for the number of farmer suicides. “Out of 90,000 farmers’ families who received compensation under the Rythu Bima scheme, nearly 10,000 had died by suicide. Who is responsible for their deaths,” he asked.
The BJP chief alleged that Chandrashekar Rao had completely duped the farming community. “In the name of providing cash benefits under the Rythu Bandhu scheme, he has done away with all the other subsidies. He has cheated the farmers by not buying paddy on time and not implementing PM Fasal Bima Yojana, and not giving a bonus to on the minimum support price (MSP),” he said.
