Chennai: Opposing the proposed power tariff hike, DMK President Karunanidhi on Thursday asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to bridge the revenue deficit of Rs 6,854 crore of state-run power utility TANGEDCO by giving it the whole amount as subsidy.
He said that Jayalalithaa's assurance of additional subsidy to protect the poor in the event of tariff hike was not clear as the parameters used for defining the poor were unknown.
"Not only the poor, but the middle classes as well will be seriously affected by the electricity tariff increase proposed by the Tamil Electricity Regulatory Commission," the former chief minister said in a statement.
The The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) suo moto notified a proposal on September 23 to hike tariff across the board to bridge a revenue deficit of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO). Blaming Jayalalithaa for increasing the price of bus fare, milk price and electricity "whenever she was in power," Karunanidhi said the hike in power tariff during his regime in 2010 was only to mop up revenue the tune of Rs 1,651 crore unlike what was sought to be done now.
Accusing the ruling party of "not implementing" the power projects initiated during the DMK regime such as the Vallur unit, he claimed that "not even a single megawatt of power was generated" from schemes announced by the AIADMK.
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