Jammu, July 26: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) on Wednesday expressed its resentment against installation of smart meters, power outages and demanded reduction in power tariffs.
Addressing media persons at its party headquarters here, DPAP Vice-President G M Saroori said that poor have to bear the brunt of anti-people policies. “It is very unfortunate that the government is imposing troubles on common people. Prices of essential commodities is touching skies, power tariffs are breaking the back of the poor,” he said.
“We have several power projects in J&K having capacity to generate power for other parts of the country. Even we have power projects in Ladakh. The country is getting its power supply from J & K, " he said. He added that during the establishment of the first phase of DulHasti power project, it was promised that people living within the five kilometers radius of project will get free power supply. “It was also promised that consumers in J&K would get power units at lower rates than the rest of the country because of having all important power projects in J&K,” Saroori said. He added that besides Kishan Ganga, Chenab valley hosts all other important power projects.
“Due to earthquakes, soil erosion and landslides, the people in Chenab Valley has suffered most,” he said.” The monthly power bills have gone up from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 which has made the lives of poor people miserable. He said that prolonged unscheduled power cuts are causing people to suffer and these cuts last up to eight to ten hours a day. “We demand that smart meters should not be installed and the rate of power tariffs should be reduced” he said.
