Bhubaneswar, March 25 (IANS) The Odisha assembly on Wednesday witnessed uproarious scenes over the power tariff hike announced by the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) on March 24.
The house was stalled amid repeated adjournments as the opposition Congress and BJP members created chaos protesting the tariff hike slated to be implemented from April 1.
As the house began to assemble, the opposition members raised slogans and waved placards condemning the hike. They also went near the speakers’ podium forcing the speaker to adjourn the house till 12.30 p.m. and later till 3 p.m.
“We had demanded suspension of the question hour and debate on adjournment over power tariff hike. But the speaker rejected our demand. Even as the speaker has his rights to reject the demand, we will continue to raise the issue affecting electricity consumers in the state,” said leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra.
BJP legislature party leader Basant Kumar Panda demanded a roll back of the power tariff hike.
While the assembly witnessed pandemonium, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) staged a demonstration near the assembly and submitted a memorandum to the governor seeking overturning of the decision.
However, the ruling BJD justified the power tariff hike by OERC. BJD lawmaker Amar Prasad Satpathy said a small hike in tariff had become unavoidable due to the mounting arrears.
Justifying his stand, he said there was no hike in the last two years. The OERC has increased tariffs by 20 paise per unit for domestic consumers while the tariff for the agriculture sector has been raised by 40 paise per unit.