Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], May 13 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Assembly Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur has strongly criticised the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government over the steep hike in electricity bills for irrigation purposes, calling the move “arbitrary” and “unjustified.”
He said that despite repeated alerts from the opposition and protests by farmers, the state government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu failed to take any action, which he termed “extremely unfortunate.”
Jairam Thakur said, “The electricity bills for irrigation connections used by farmers are shocking. Despite bringing the issue to the government’s notice, there has been no proactive response, which is extremely unfortunate.”
Earlier, he pointed out that farmers used to pay Rs300 for consuming 500 units of electricity, but now under the new policy, the bill has shot up to nearly Rs2800 for the same usage.
Thakur called the tariff rise an attack on the country’s food providers and said it was unacceptable.
He said, “Such injustice against the country’s food providers will not be tolerated. A steep hike in electricity tariffs is unjustified. The government must take this issue seriously and put an end to this kind of collection from farmers.”
“How are farmers expected to manage with such arbitrary billing? This is chaos imposed on the country’s food providers. The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly opposes this and the government cannot turn a blind eye to this protest,” he added.
Taking a dig at the Congress government’s publicity methods, Thakur said the government proudly advertised even the smallest of achievements, but chose to remain silent on issues that directly impacted the public.
He said, “Whenever the government increases milk prices by Rs2, it floods every corner of the state…streets, intersections, buses…with posters and hoardings. But when it raises electricity bills by five to seven times, it remains silent.”
He questioned the Congress party’s election promises, stating that one of their key pre-poll guarantees was 300 units of free electricity. He accused the government of not only failing to deliver on that promise but also sharply increasing rates.
He said, “Today, the Congress-led Sukhu government is massively increasing electricity rates. But during the assembly elections, Congress leaders, from top to bottom, had loudly declared across the state that if their government came to power, 300 units of electricity would be provided free. This was one of their ten so-called ‘guarantees.’ Not only has the government failed to deliver on the promise of free electricity, but it has drastically increased electricity rates.”
Thakur also condemned the government’s approach towards poor and marginalised communities, saying that it had spared no one while imposing these charges.
He said, “The government has not spared even the poor and farmers while imposing these charges. This approach is unacceptable. Across the country, farmers receive subsidised electricity for irrigation. Himachal Pradesh too had such subsidies in place.”
Urging the Chief Minister to reconsider the hike, he warned that the continued neglect of public concerns would damage the state.
“The manner in which the government is ignoring public issues is extremely harmful for the state. The government cannot continue this arbitrary treatment of the people,” he concluded. (ANI)
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