Patna, February 24:
Recently the Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited proposed
the enhancement of about 85 percent in power tariff. The Mahangi Bijali Virodhi
Sangharsha Manch (A platform of struggle against costly electricity) comprising
of 14 left, democratic and progressive parties/organizations registered its
protest against the proposed hike and organized a huge dharna at Bhagat Singh
Chowk, Gandhi Maidan on Monday. It is noteworthy that in 2012 this platform
fought against the proposal of 50 percent hike in power tariff and due to the
pressure of the movement government could not hike as it desired.
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| Members of presidium sitting on dias |
Addressing the huge dharna Arun Kumar Singh, Senior State
Committee Member, SUCI (Communist) said, “The proposal of about 85 percent
increase in power tariff by Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited is out
and out unjustified and anti-people. This excessive hike would not only increase the burden on the common people
but push them in suffocating situation already pressed hard by sky rocketing
price hike and costly power. In course
of following the anti people Electricity Act-2003 in the state the present
JD(U) and previous JD(U)-BJP alliance government led by Mr. Nitish Kumar adopted
the policy of enhancing power tariffs.” Dealing with the role of bourgeois
governments claiming themselves public welfare governments he said that the
governments had turned even the electricity as the means of earning profit in
the present phase of globalization, privatization and liberalization. He
demanded not only to rollback the proposed hike but also to reduce 20 per cent
exiting tariff.
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| A portion of the gathering |
Among others who spoke on the occasion were Chakradhar Prasad
Singh of CPI, Sarandhar Paswan of CPI (M), Raja Babu of MCPI (U), Arvind Sinha
of CPI (ML), C. A. Priyadarshi of Jan Mukti Sangharsha Vahini, Ajay Kumar Sinha
of Sarwahara Jama Morcha, Wakil Thakur of All India Forward Bloc, Nripendra
Krishna Mahato of Janawadi Forward Bloc,
Bal Govind Singh of Akhil Hind Forward Bloc (Krantikari), Sanjay Sriwastav of Samajwadi Jana Parishad, Dhirendra
Bharati of Bihar Transport Federation (Auto Union), Ram Nandan Prasad of
Asangathit Kshetra Kamgar Union, Satish of CCI, Jay Prakash of Shram Mukti
Sangathan and Rupesh of Lok Parishad. Economist Prof. Nawak Kishore Chaudhary, Satya Narayan Madan and Vijay Bahadur Singh
also addressed the dharna. All the speakers demanded to repeal the Electricity
Act-2003 and provide electricity for all. At the outset Nand Kishore Singh,
Convener of Mahangi Bijali Virodhi Sangharsha Manch outlined the importance of
the movement and proposed the names of presidium.
The dharna was presided over
by 7 member presidium comprising of Shiv Shankar of SUCI (Communist), Gaznafar
Nawab of CPI, Ganesh Shankar Singh of CPI (M), P. S. Pal of MCPI (U), Nagendra
Prasad of CPI (ML), Ramdas Prasad of Janawadi Forward Bloc and Bal Govind Singh of Akhil
Hind Forward Bloc (Krantikari). In his
presidential address Shiv Shankar, State Secretary, SUCI (Communist) called
upon all the progressive and democratic minded people to come forward and build
up a powerful resistance movement to compel the government to rollback the
proposed tariff hike.
