The Hindu : `Transco hearings inaccessible to public'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 23, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

`Transco hearings inaccessible to public'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 22. The CPI(M) State secretary, B.V. Raghavulu, has said that the recently held public hearings on the balance sheets and tariff proposal of APTransco and its four discoms, were inaccessible to the common man who bears the brunt of tariff hikes.

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission continued to use English in its correspondence and notifications, ignoring Telugu, the common man's language.

The list of 20-odd petitioners this year was dominated by NGOs who themselves pointed out the hurdles thwarting public participation in the hearings. M. Thimma Reddy of People's Monitoring Group said the ERC's insistence that seven sets of the petition be filed and the choice of only Hyderabad and Tirupati as the venues, made it difficult for villagers and farmers to participate. He suggested that second-ranking towns also be selected for such hearings.

Some of the petitioners suggested that the 17 members of the State Electricity Advisory Committee, be used for eliciting public opinion.

Petitioners also asked Transco to introduce compensation in case of death due to short circuit, burning of home appliances such as TV sets etc.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh