Power Outage In Odisha: Congress To Gherao GRIDCO Office On June 19, Demands ‘White Paper’ On Infra Money

Bhubaneswar: Hitting out at Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over power outage in Odisha and cooking gas price rise respectively, Congress on Wedenesday accused the two political parties of enacting drama over the burning issues to hoodwink people.

Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak claimed that both BJP and BJP are misleading people and playing with their sentiments.

Noting that BJP, which is responsible for soaring price of cooking gas, held demonstration over power disruptions in the state, he said the ruling BJD staged dharna in a similar fashion over LPG price in a bid to suppress its failure in ensuring uninterrupted and cheap electricity in the state.

Coming down heavily on both the parties, the PCC chief claimed that the BJD regime in the state has been exploiting people with high power tariff and frequent disruptions in electricity supply. Similarly, the BJP-led government at the Centre has burdened the people with steep rise in the prices of cooking gas.

Pattanayak and senior Congress leader Panchanan Kanungo said power tariff in Odisha has gone up by around 220 per cent, while cooking gas price has registered over 250 per cent rise in last 10 years.

Stating that Rs 20,000 crore was allotted for power infrastructure development in the state, the PCC chief said of the total amount, Rs 5,000 crore was given to Tata Power when the company took over the task of power distribution.

Claiming that there is no information about the rest Rs 15,000 crore, Pattanayak said the state government must come out with a white paper on the issue giving details about the amount and tell people as to how the money has been utilized.

Mounting a scathing attack on the Naveen Patnaik government over frequent power outage across the state amid scorching heat, he said Congress party will gherao GRIDCO office on June 19 to protest erratic power supply and demand concrete steps to ensure uninterrupted electricity to the people.