BJP protests hike in electricity tariff in Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad, Apr 16 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists staged a protest here on Monday against the hike in electricity tariff.

The activists marched towards headquarters of the state electricity department, and shouted anti-government slogans.

Senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya criticized Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for keeping the electricity department under his ambit.

"Government is taking such steps to deceit people. Small industries and middle class people are facing a lot of problems. They had promised to supply electricity for seven hours but they are not even supplying for four to five hours. Therefore, Bharatiya Janata Party demands that those people who consume 50-100 units and also those who consume 100-500 units should reap profit," said Dattatreya.

"Secondly, the government should fulfill its promise of supplying continuous electricity and thirdly government should provide subsidy to promote small-scale industry," he added.

Demanding an immediate rollback, Dattatreya threatened the state government that they would intensify their movement in villages and across several cities.

Meanwhile, another BJP leader K. Laxman echoing similar sentiments said the government has turned insensitive to people of the state, as it was amending its policies to favour big industrialists.

"The policies, which are being adopted by central and state government, are in favour of big tycoons such as Reliance, GVK or Lanco. These policies, which are being framed to benefit big industries is troubling people," he said.

Laxman further said that the government did not fulfill the promise made by it in its manifesto that it would not increase power tariff during its tenure. (ANI)