Govt sacks 618 ASHA workers

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, October 7

Outcry over hiked power tariff is being witnessed not only in the urban areas but also in villages too. Residents of Ahmedpur Darewala village in the Dabwali sub-division of Sirsa district today passed a resolution that no villager will pay the inflated bills handed over to them by the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN).

In Bakrianwali and Gudiakhera villages, the villagers have decided to boycott electricity bills.

Hundreds of villagers who assembled at the Panchayat Ghar today also resolved that anyone paying the bills in violation of the resolution would be fined by the villagers.

Villagers, including former sarpanch Balwinder Singh, Ajaib Singh, Vijay Karwasara, Raj Kumar Jogpal, Krishan Kumar and Suresh alleged that even villagers who used electricity sparingly and did not have enough earnings to make their both ends meet had received electricity bills up to Rs 5,000 this time.

There are many families who have received bills of Rs 8,000 and more though their electricity consumption is not much and they did not have any power-guzzling gadgets.

Villagers collected their electricity bills and torched them by keeping them together at a place in the Panchayat Ghar.

Meanwhile, villagers from Bakrianwali and Gudiakhera assembled at common places after making announcement on the public address system.

The villagers expressed resentment over the inflated electricity bills and decided to boycott them.

“We will send DHBVN officials who come to the village for collection of payments empty handed till the government did not correct the bills,” the villagers said.

Meanwhile, Jagdish Chopra, political adviser to CM Manohar Lal Khattar, said the power tariff and fuel surcharge adjustment (FSA) were not decided by the state government but an independent body called the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission.