Nagpur: BJP activists on Friday staged agitations at each assembly constituency of the city to protest energy minister Nitin Raut’s decision to send disconnection notices to about 75 lakh power bill defaulters.
Raut, on the other hand, convened a press conference and claimed that BJP was staging the agitation to cover up for its poor performance in recent elections. He also asked why the party was not protesting against rise in prices of fuel.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena has announced that it will stage a statewide agitation against fuel price hike.
BJP leaders, including city president Pravin Datke, mayor Dayashankar Tiwari, its MLAs, MLCs and other leaders claimed that MSEDCL had sent inflated bills to consumers during Covid and was now threatening to disconnect those who refused to pay them. They said that BJP workers would prevent MSEDCL staffers from disconnecting any one.
Raut claimed that BJP was responsible for MSEDCL’s poor condition. “Dues owed by consumers to MSEDCL rose from Rs14,145 crore in March 2014 to Rs51,146 crore in March 2020. The government did not take any steps to recover bills,” he said. However, MSEDCL’s arrears have continued to rise at an alarming pace under Raut too. By December 2020, the arrears had reached Rs71,506 crore, an increase of over Rs20,000 crore in nine months.
The minister said that MSEDCL had recovered 79% of the power bills and would cross 90% by March. “BJP will fall flat on its face,” he added.
Raut had promised to provide 100 units free power to state power consumers. However, this promise has not been fulfilled and BJP is continuously attacking the minister over this. When he was reminded of this, Raut slammed BJP for increasing fuel prices.
The Congress minister charged that BJP wanted to privatize MSEDCL, which was the reason for not keeping arrears in check.