Congress MLA follows Assam Speaker’s ‘advice’, sits under tree to combat soaring power tariff

Guwahati: Congress’ three-time Assam MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha on Tuesday followed state Assembly speaker Biswajit Daimari’s “advice” to sit under trees to deal with the soaring power tariffs amidst the scorching heat wave that has been sweeping the state for the last few days.

Purkayastha was seen on Tuesday sitting under a tree in front of the Speaker’s official residence here for at least an hour.

Purkayastha, who is also the Working President of the state Congress, said: “The tariffs have increased by 30 to 70 paisa per unit. This is a huge burden on the citizens. At a time when Congress governments in many states are advocating for free electricity, BJP leaders are issuing insensible comments.”

“As per Speaker Daimari’s advice to the people, as a public representative, I should follow it immediately. So, I went in front of his residence and stayed there under the trees for one hour, but I have not seen him there,” he said.

Purakayastha also trained guns towards the BJP for not fulfilling its poll promise.

“Before the election, the BJP promised the people of Assam 24 hours of uninterrupted electricity; however, now the ruling party is busy befooling the citizens.”

He also announced that he would sit under the trees in front of Daimary’s official residence for at least the next five days.

Earlier, Daimari said: “The power tariffs have increased, and people should avoid excessive use of fans to save electricity bills. Instead, everybody should sit under trees to combat rising tariffs.”

He further said that the Assam government does not itself produce enough electricity to meet the daily needs of consumers, and the state is heavily dependent on private companies for supply.

“If the power companies are hiking the tariffs, the state government should pass that on to the consumers, and people have to pay. So, I believe that an increase in power tariffs is not at all an issue, and consumers must pay the bills against their usage,” Daimari said.

However, his comments did not go well with the opposition, and a section of citizens too have been criticising him.

–IANS