Shabbir Ali of Congress warns TRS govt against increasing power tariff, RTC bus charges

HYDERABAD: Former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir of the Congress has warned the TRS government against increasing the power tariff and RTC fares at a time when the people are coming out of the losses they suffered due to the first and second wave of Covid-19.
Discussions are currently going on that the government has proposed to hike power tariff and RTC bus ticket fares. The Congress will launch mass agitation if the common people will be burdened with a hike in electricity consumption charges and RTC bus ticket prices, he said.
"The unplanned lockdown due to Covid-19 has badly hit the economy. People have either lost their jobs or their incomes have decreased drastically. They are already facing huge economic problems due to an increase in fuel prices, other essential commodities and services. At this juncture, hike in power tariff and RTC fares will break their backbone," Shabbir Ali said.
TRS leaders did not speak about the hike in power tariff or RTC fares till yesterday due to Huzurabad bye-elections. Now that the bye-election is over, the TRS government should not dare to go for increasing the power and RTC bus charges, he said.
The Congress leader said the Congress would wage a legal battle, if required, to defend the interests of paddy farmers in Telangana. Farmers would suffer huge losses if they opt for alternate crops other than paddy. He said if the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was refusing to buy the paddy, then the state government should purchase the crop.
"TRS Govt took loans of Rs 4 lakh crore in the name of irrigation and other projects. Most of the loans were taken to make payments to contractors. But CM KCR is not willing to spend any money to help the farmers by giving them compensation or buying their agricultural produce at MSP," he said.
Earlier during the day, Congress leaders including Manickam Tagore, A Revanth Reddy, Shabbir Ali among others paid floral tributes to the statue of former Prime Minister Late Indira Gandhi near Necklace Road on the occasion of her death anniversary.