Opposition walkout in Mhtra Assembly over tariff hike

Nagpur, Dec 8 (UNI) The entire opposition staged a walkout in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today raising slogans and displaying banners against the hike in the power tariff by the Reliance Energy in Mumbai and expressing dissatisfaction over the government's stand on the issue.

The walkout came after Minister for Energy Dilip Walse-Patil announced he would hold a meeting with representatives of the company on December 14 to discuss the issue and apprise them of the feelings of the House.

Replying to a calling-attention motion from Leader of the Opposition Ramdas Kadam and others, Mr Walse-Patil said Reliance Energy had obtained approval from the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for the hike.

He said there was no provision in the existing law for the state government to intervene suo motu in a hearing before MERC over a proposal for a hike in power tariff from a company.

In view of the feelings of the House, the government would examine if it could make a submission before the commission when such a hearing took place, he said.

Members from both sides of the House were dissatisfied with the reply and demanded the government intervene in the matter to provide succour to the largely middle-class population of suburban Mumbai.

Mr Kadam and Gajanan Kirtikar (both of the Shiv Sena) condemned the hike by the company and the government's stand and alleged the minister was trying to mislead the House.

Earlier, Mr Walse-Patil said MERC had scrapped on November 30 last the load management charges imposed on users consuming more than 300 units of power in a month.

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