Congress to organize statewide movements against power tariff, property tax hikes

The opposition Congress will launch statewide agitation against abrupt hike of power tariff, property tax for Agartala city dwellers and forceful eviction drive against hawkers.

Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhavan on Sunday afternoon, Tripura Pradesh Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha strongly criticizing the decisions of the state government abrupt hike in power tariff just weeks before biggest festival of Durga puja and claimed that  the state government unilaterally without any information to lakhs of power consumers imposed the hike power tariff, which will definitely the burden on common people.

He claimed that once a profitable organization of the state is running in losses during the past five and half years. Giving instances of existing power tariffs of many states of the country, Saha claimed that present power tariffs  and slaps are much higher in comparison to other states of the country despite a power surplus state.

Demanding high level enquiry, Saha said that Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL),once a profit-making government entity, has incurred a total loss of Rs 280 crore during financial years-2021-22 and a loss of Rs 80 crore in the first three months of the current financial year and Congress leader wanted a detail description  from the government site how the loss are running high.

The state government through this sudden hike in power tariff will impose extra-burden on the people, who are suffering from high inflation, said Saha.

He claimed that there is no justification over the hike of power without informing lakhs of consumers. He said that TSECL has given reason for hike because of huge losses in transmission and distribution, theft and revenue gap, which can be mitigated by developing the present infrastructures. Saha demanded immediate roll-back of the decision as the suffering common people will rise again with this power tariff hike before the festival.

Saha also slammed the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) over serving property tax notices to the city dwellers without their concern or proper assessment of their properties. “The city dwellers must be aware of the assessment method of their property taxes and it is not justified to serve notices for paying taxes before October 5th,” said Saha.

He also strongly criticized the AMC over their eviction drive in and around the city and claimed that many poor hawkers were forcefully evicted despite having a hawker license. He demanded immediate rehabilitation of all evicted hawkers and compensation of their property loss during bulldozing drive by AMC.

Saha also appealed to the people of the state to raise their voices against oppression politics of BJP government and should strengthen the movements of Congress demanding roll back of these decisions.