Opposition leader of Tripura and CPM Politburo member Manik Sarkar demanded statements from the State Government on allegations of a scam in TSECL and customers’ grievances on power outages as well as inflated bills.
Addressing a press conference in Agartala on Saturday, Sarkar referred to a case filed in the High Court of Tripura against the TSECL. The petitioner alleged a scam of Rs 135 crore against the TSECL in the case. Meanwhile, reacting to the allegation, the TSECL authority held a press conference and refuted any irregularities.
Sarkar referred to reports published in the media about the press briefing by the TSECL authority and sniffed some wrong doings. To this end, he demanded a statement from the Government to clear the doubts.
Apart from this, Sarkar also trained his guns at the TSECL on multiple issues. He criticized the privatization of services of the TSECL and said, “Consumers from different parts of the State are in trouble due frequent power cuts. Moreover, there is no one to receive the call from the aggrieved customers and address the issues. These are all happening as the services of the Power Department had been entrusted with private agencies”.
Power cuts and outages for prolonged hours are affecting the trading activities, health care services and domestic life.
While unstable power supply and outages are two major problems that the customers are facing, there is another critical issue and the Government must step in to look into the matter.
He said, “It is being reported by many people that they are receiving inflated electric bills. Despite repeated complaints, no steps have reportedly been taken to solve the problem. Even poor villagers residing in remote areas are victims of inflated bills.
On another note, the Opposition leader also drew the attention of the State Government on alleged corruption in REGA.
In his around 50-minute long press meet, Sarkar slammed the State Government’s move relating to school education. He urged the State Government to refrain from shutting down or handing the schools with minimal students to private players. Opposing the move, he termed the initiative as a step forward to hand over education to private players, instead, he suggested exploring reasons behind dwindling number of students in some schools.
In another press meet, leaders of the youth wings of CPM informed the media that they would launch weeklong state-wide membership drives from Saturday.
(Courtesy Tripura Times)
