PANJIM: As a part of its State wide agitation, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) burnt effigy of Power Minister Nilesh Cabral against exorbitant power bills issued to customers.
The Congress party has proposed that the department must issue fresh bills waiving off two months consumption charges or 50 percent discount on the bills issued. It has also said that the government can explore charging power consumption bill as per February 2020 bill amount.
“The electricity department has been sending exorbitant bills to its consumers since the outbreak of Covid Pandemic. The bills are highly inflated with average amounts charged now are almost 10 to 50 times more than the charges of the previous months. The bills are being issued for more than 90 days consumption period,” the memorandum stated.
The party said that due to the Covid pandemic and economic slowdown, the people are going through immense financial tensions due to loss of their jobs or stoppage of business activities and in such conditions receiving such hefty bills from the department is great injustice to the common man.
“The government should have shown some humanity in these critical times and issued discounted bills giving relief to the people like it is done in other states,” said GPCC president Girish Chodankar said
He said that government will be solely responsible is some citizen commits suicide over power bill issue, as at present large number of consumers are paying bills by seeking loan.
“The intentions of the Government looks like to loot the common man even in times of pandemic and financial stress and push them into mental and financial depression which can result in them falling prey to Coronavirus,” the memorandum stated.
Meanwhile, GPCC has warned to intensify their protest if the demands are not met in the coming 15 days.