Raipur: Congress government first cheated the public of Chhattisgarh and now started looting by increasing the power tariff, alleged Leader of Opposition (LO) Dharamlal Kaushik while addressing a press conference at BJP office, Rajbandha Maidan in Raipur on Friday.

He alleged the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government first announced it had halved the electricity bills and then increased the power tariffs.

It has provided a discount of Rs 800 crores to the public and planned to recover Rs 1000 crores. Instead of taxing the Corporate and industrialists, it has hiked the power tariff of common men, who are already struggling to cope during this period of Covid crisis, Kaushik alleged.

The government has officially mentioned that it will receive a profit of Rs 2047 crores this year. In such a case, raising power tariffs is just another blow to the public who voted this government into power.

Ex-Minister and BJP leader Rajesh Munat alleged that the Congress government made power surplus Chhattisgarh state to a power-starved state. More than 35000 farmers still waited for months to get power connection to ensure irrigation of their fields, Munat alleged. Thus, we will take out a candle march in Raipur on August 17, the BJP leader alleged.

The Congress also countered the allegations and said BJP required introspection before blaming others. In Raman Singh's tyrannical rule, power tariffs were hiked 9 times and every year the power hike remained around 6 percent, said Dhanjay Singh Thakur, Spokesperson Chhattisgarh Congress.

In addition, Managing Director level officers of Electricity Department on the condition of anonymity said, the figures presented by the BJP leaders are concocted. Despite the power tariff hike, the average cost per unit of electricity is quite lower than that of states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. 38 lakhs of LT consumers of the state are getting a subsidy of Rs 950 crores.