Hundreds of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadres on Tuesday staged black flag demonstrations across Virudhunagar district, protesting what they call “exorbitant” electricity charges imposed on consumers during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Former Minister and Aruppukottai MLA, K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, and Virudhunagar MLA, A.R.R. Srinivasan, staged protests at Virudhunagar.
Mr. Ramachandran alleged that every electricity consumer has been imposed a ‘fine’ by the State Government. Consumers were affected due to the wrong calculations made by Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation), he claimed. Adding three months’ consumption to one cycle has led to consumption units going up to the next slabs in the tariff. “Even the officials do not have a proper answer,” he said adding that Tangedco should calculate the units consumed and levy the charge as per the previous slabs of the consumers. “This will solve the problem,” he added.
Tiruchuli MLA and former minister Thangam Thennarasu, led the protest at his native village, Mallankinaru. That people participated in the protest “in large-scale in every village in the district,” showed that every family was affected by the “wrong calculations” adopted by Tangedco, he said. “Tangedco had been inconsistent in its directions on calculating the charges,” he said.
Mr. Thennarasu said that one party functionary, Kannan in Virudhunagar district, got a high electricity bill of ₹75,000. “When he took up his case, officials said there had been a mistake and corrected it to ₹15,000,” he said adding that this was one example where Tangedco officials had gone wrong.
When people were already under a great burden of job loss and loss of income, these exorbitant charges came to them as a shock. While some State governments like Kerala and Madhya Pradesh have announced some concessions for the consumers, the Tamil Nadu government was not extending any such favours to the affected consumers. “At least, the consumers should be allowed to pay the increased tariff in easy instalments and that would help them overcome their present misery,” he added.
Rajapalayam MLA S. Thangapandian took part in the protest at Chettiyarpatti.
