Chief Minister K Rosaiah has completely the spoiled the image of the Congress government which his predecessor late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had built in the last five and a half years.
On the pretext of precarious financial situation on account of Telangana agitation, the Rosaiah government on Wednesday imposed heavy burden on the people of Andhra Pradesh by increasing the APSRTC bus fares in the evening and power tariff in the night. The bus fares have gone up steeply by eight to 25 paise per km. On the other hand, the power tariff is also expected to go up by 50 paise per unit for consumers who consume beyond 300 units per month. The commercial power tariff is also proposed to be hiked steeply.
The RTC bus fare hike will result in an additional revenue of about Rs 400 crore to the corporation, while the power tariff hike will fetch another Rs 1200 crore to the APTransco. No doubt, it is going to be a heavy burden on the people who are already hit hard by the recession and drop in income levels.
When YSR was alive, he gave a public statement saying that there was no question of increasing power tariff at any cost. In his first term, YSR government had not only provided free power supply to the farmers, but also did not increase the power tariff for domestic consumers. Not only that, he even reduced industrial power tariff to help industrialisation in the state. He even promised to increase the free power supply hours to farmers from seven to nine hours. But before he implemented it, he met with fatal accident.
Rosaiah, who held the finance portfolio in YSR government, has proved a miserable failure. Not only that he did not keep up the promise made by YSR on nine-hour power supply. Now, he has increased power tariff.
Don’t be surprised if he does away with free power supply as well!
