Jahangeer Ganaie
Anantnag, May 24: The residents of different areas of South Kashmir are up in arms against the Power Development Department (PDD) for hiking their power tariffs every month and demanded authorities to reconsider its decision.
The residents of different areas of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian said that the authorities have been sending inflated bills to the consumers after enhancing consumption load without carrying out any survey and every month around Rs 200-300 are being hiked in the tariff.
They said that their monthly tariff has been increased from Rs 500 to around Rs 1800 in the last one year and this huge increase was already taking a heavy toll on locals, who are financially weak.
The consumers said that their tariff has been increased to an unaffordable level and rather it is being persistently hiked every month.
Nadeem Ahmad, a resident of Kokernag area of Anantnag said that the area is facing unscheduled power cuts as they get supply for a few hours only but the tariff at the same time is being increased every month.
He said that on what basis power tariff is being hiked when infrastructure isn’t being upgraded at all and the low lying lines without poles continue to pose threat to the locals.
Javid Ahmad, another consumer from Shopian said that in the last year or two, the government has increased tariff by at least 4-5 times and it has been tripled in the last one year only. The government must think of poor people before making such a decision, he said.
People from other areas, while echoing the same voice said, they aren’t receiving the supply like they were getting before 2-3 years and despite that the government continues to increase tariffs.
They said forgot about 24×7 supply, they have been receiving a supply for a few hours hardly, adding that they have brought this issue into the notice of concerned authorities but nothing has been done in this regard as of now.
The consumers appealed to the PDD that they should revisit their decision so that people won’t have to suffer. They also sought intervention of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Managing Director PDD and other authorities in this regard.
