Harish Rao opposes power tariff hike, warns of public agitation | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) demanded the state govt to immediately withdraw Rs 5,240 crore true up power charges, which will be collected from consumers beginning from November month bill. Former minister T Harish Rao said the BRS would take up agitation if the decision was not reversed and also urged other opposition parties, including the Left parties, to join the BRS-led movement against the tariff burden.Speaking at a press conference at Telangana Bhavan on Tuesday, Harish Rao said the govt should have announced relief to people during the Dasara and Diwali festive season instead of increasing their electricity burden.“On one side there are power cuts and on the other, people are being hit with higher electricity bills,” he said, questioning CM Revanth Reddy’s govt over its decision to recover the expenditure on power purchases from consumers,” he said.Harish Rao said when BRS was in power, between 2016 to 2022, there was proposal by the Telangana Electricity Regulatory Authority (TGERC) to collect Rs 12,718 crore true up charges, but the then CM K Chandrasekhar Rao did not agree for that.He also recalled BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao had decided to launch a public movement against the proposed burden on power charges hike. He recalled the 2000 Basheerbagh police firing during protests against electricity tariff hikes and said the power issue had played an important role in the Telangana movement.Criticising the Congress govt, he alleged that no significant new generation capacity or substations had been added since it came to power. He accused the govt of attributing power shortages to El Niño while failing to utilise available water and coal for power generation.Harish Rao alleged that thermal power plants were operating well below their installed capacity and questioned the govt’s decision to buy power from outside at high prices while imposing the additional cost on consumers. The BRS leader further alleged that farmers were facing power shortages, low voltage and inadequate irrigation, forcing them to stage protests at substations. He accused the govt of bringing back “crop holidays and power holidays” seen during the undivided AP era.He also opposed the alleged move to privatise parts of the state’s power sector, including TG-Transco, TG-Genco, Singareni and the distribution companies. He urged power sector employees to oppose privatisation proposals.He claimed that the previous BRS govt had strengthened the power sector by investing around ₹91,000 crore in generation, transmission and other infrastructure. He cited an increase in installed power generation capacity from 7,778 MW before 2014 to 19,450 MW by December 2023.According to Harish Rao, the number of 400-KV substations increased from six to 30, while 220-KV substations rose from 51 to 103 and 132-KV substations from 176 to 251 during the BRS regime. He also claimed that several major thermal and solar generation projects were commissioned during the period.ends/