Siddaramaiah assured that he would look into the demands put forth by the FKCCI, which apprised him of the hardships being faced by traders and industries due to the “exorbitant” hike in power tariff
While denying the allegations of any relation between the tariff hike and the state government’s ‘Gruha Jyoti’ scheme, chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said there is a wrong notion that the burden of ‘Gruha Jyoti’– a scheme that offers up to 200 units of free power for residential use every month, has been passed on to others.
“It is wrong to think that the burden of Gruha Jyoti Yojana has been put on others,” Siddaramaiah told a delegation of Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI). The delegation led by its president BV Gopal Reddy met the CM at his home office ‘Krishna’.
Siddaramaiah, however, assured that he would look into the demands put forth by the FKCCI, which apprised him of the hardships being faced by traders and industries due to the “exorbitant” hike in power tariff.
The CM clarified that the hike was not done by his government but the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), and added that the decision on tariff increase was taken by the KERC even before his party came to power.
He assured the delegation that an appropriate decision would be taken after holding separate meetings with the finance and energy departments, Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) and FKCCI.
The FKCCI members appealed to the CM to reduce the hike in power tariff for small and medium industries from 9% to 3%.
They also requested Siddaramaiah to provide concession on Fuel Escalation Charges (FEC) and suggested that a policy for the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME), as has been formulated in some other states, be drawn up in Karnataka.
Earlier KCCI had called for a Karnataka bandh on June 22 to protest against the abnormal price hike in electricity charges by the ESCOMs. “The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) has called off the ‘bandh’ that was called today and asked all affiliated bodies not to protest or call a bandh after talks with the government. Only Hubli KCCI has called for a bandh and protest today,” said an FKCCI official.
KCCI, along with all other District chambers of commerce, had for the last eight days tried to draw the attention of the government towards the high electricity charges. However, no solution was found. So to draw the attention of the government towards their problem, they planned a Karnataka bandh.
“For the last eight days, we have made attempts to convey the seriousness of the impact of the hike in electricity charges. However, no solution is forthcoming from the Officials or government representatives,” said FKCCI in a notification.
“To draw the attention of the Government, we are calling for this Bandh. We wish to find a solution and get a reduction in the electricity charges. We hope that the Government will respond to our request,” it stated.
Meanwhile, Karnataka food minister KH Muniyappa on Friday said in Delhi that the state requested 135,000 metric tonnes of rice for the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme but the Centre has refused to provide it. Speaking to the media, minister Muniyappa said, “We met Union textiles, sugar and agriculture minister Piyush Goyal today and requested to provide rice to the state government’s ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme. We requested the Minister that the stock is there and we are not asking for free. But the Union minister has informed that 30 million tonnes have been earmarked for various other projects so the state cannot be provided rice.”
Source: PTI
