Srinagar, Mar 20: The residents of Pather Masjid locality in Shaher-e-Khaas are up in arms against the Power Development Department accusing the PDD of overcharging them for the monthly power tariff. The complainants said their fee has been hiked arbitrarily by around 75%.
 “We the power consumers of Electric Sub Division Pather Masjid strongly condemn the arbitrary hike in their power tariffs by 75% from this month,” the residents said.
 “Though the department had hinted a possible hike of only 14% in power tariffs in near future, it came as a brute shock to the consumers falling under this Sub Division to find that their power tariffs had been hiked by 75% and that too selectively in case of their areas,” a delegation of the residents told Greater Kashmir.
 “It is quite unreasonable that the department has targeted the consumers of this Division alone  with the undue hike while the power tariff in case of all other areas continues to be the same as earlier,” the complainants said.
 Seeking a quick redressal to their grievances, the residents threatened to stage roadside demonstrations should the government fail to rollback the “undue hike.”
 When contacted the PDD officials said the hike was due.
 “Basically some consumers had agreement for mere half-a-KV but were consuming more than that,” Executive Engineer PDD, Aijaz Ahmed Dar told Greater Kashmir.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 IST