Power tariff hike may figure at Congress Meet

HYDERABAD: The maiden meeting of the Congress Coordination Committee, likely to be held here on Jan 4 or 5 under the chairmanship of AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, is expected to discuss the political fallout of the Discoms' annual revenue requirement (ARR) proposals placed before the APERC which sought to raise nearly Rs 4,950 crore by way of raising power tariff to all sectors.
The eight member coordination committee in which chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana are members, would also discuss how much burden the state was willing to bear and how much it would pass on to the consumers.Power tariff hike proposals assumed political significance in view of the byelections slated next year. Already seven seats (six in Telangana and one in Andhra) have fallen vacant and if the speaker disqualifies the 16 Congress MLAs and accepts the resignation of PRP MLA Shobha Nagireddy, the number of seats falling vacant would be 24. The Congress will be committing a harakiri if the state does not bear a portion of the proposed hike.