Chescom customers oppose hike

There was an overall opposition to the 90 paise increase per unit of power as proposed by the Chamundeswari Electricity Supply Company (Chescom) along with other four Escoms in the state at the public hearing in Mysore last week.

The Karnataka Industrial Area Manufacturers' Association (KIAMA) of Mysore had appealed to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), which heard the public petitions on the power tariff increase, to roll back the existing tariff to the previous levels in view of the huge profit Chescom has earned.

Strongly opposing any revision in the power tariff, KIADB general secretary K Ravindra Prabhu argued before KERC chairman KP Pandey and member H S Subramanya that Chescom has hidden vital information by not giving its balance sheet, which he said, shows a profit of Rs 19.67 crore during FY06, an increase of 171 per cent over Rs 7.24 crore profit during FY05.

He argued that Chescom has not submitted compliance to the KERC directive in respect of reducing the T&D losses and metering installations.

Prabhu said SSIs, which come under the LT-5 category, were under the threat of closure due to global competition and are subject to frequent raising cost of power for no fault of the industries.

Hebbal Industries Association general secretary Sureshkumar Jain said oil was being regularly stolen from transformers for the last six months, resulting in prolonged power failure in the industrial areas in Mysore. This loss was also being passed on to the industries.

Coffee planters in Hassan, Kodagu and other districts were facing a financial crunch due to poor prices for coffee in the market. The Centre had come out with a special package to help them tide over the situation.

Under the circumstances, they should not be burdened with additional power tariff, urged Earthy Mallesh of Hassan Coffee Planters' Association.

IP Set Owners' Association leader Krishna Bhat demanded metering of streetlights and Bhagya Jyothi connections to avoid power loss.

"There are many discrepancies between the figures given by the KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd) and Chescom," complained Bharatiya Kisan Sangha Udupi district general secretary Sathyanarayana Udupa, citing a number of examples.