Uttam Kumar Reddy slammed KCR for his silence on flawed electricity bills

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy strongly condemned the silence of Chief Minister K Chandra Shekhar Rao on the exaggerated and flawed electricity bills served over 95 lakh power consumers and demanded a 100% reduction of power bills for below poverty line families in the lockdown period.

He submitted a memorandum to the Chairman & Managing Director of TS TRANSCO at Vidhyut Soudha on Monday as part of the statewide 'black flag and badge protest' against the high electricity bills. Former Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Hyderabad Congress Committee president M. Anjan Kumar Yadav, Youth Congress president Anil Kumar Yadav and other leaders were also present.

Speaking there, Uttam Kumar Reddy stated, "Congress leaders and workers held a protest in front of electricity offices across Telangana State. We had submitted memorandums addressing the CM demanding 100 per cent waiver of electricity bills for all BPL families and MSMEs for the entire lockdown period and shifting the billing method from the non-telescopic to telescopic method." He said that there were huge errors in the bills generated for the month of June wherein consumption for the entire 90-day period was taken into account at once. This method automatically pushed all the consumers into a higher slab and they got bills which are more than triple compared to the average bills they get every month.

He slammed CM KCR for maintaining silence on the issue. He said, "How can the Chief Minister remain silent on a problem which has hit almost each and every household in the State? Minister K. Tarakarama Rao, who also happens to be the Working President of the ruling TRS party, himself admitted that he was the recipient of a large number of complaints on high power bills on his Twitter account and also assured that he would take up the issue. But a day later, Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy addressed a press conference justifying the inflated electricity bills and ruled out their withdrawal or even correction. They simply ignored all the complaints and started harassing the consumers to pay the flawed bills while threatening them with disconnection for non-payment."

He added that BPL families managed basic survival with great difficulty during this lockdown period. In that time, those who got Rs. 1500 assistance during lockdown were asked to pay up to Rs. 5,000 towards the power they consumed in that period.

He said that CM KCR is trying to earn profit for the power firms using wrong billing methods instead of making this commodity cheaper and easily accessible, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic.