Bhubaneswar: Headway emerged in the deadlock in Assembly over power tariff hike after Energy minister Pranab Prakash Mishra informed the house that the government will file a review petition before Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to rollback tariff hike in the agriculture sector. Keeping in mind the interests of the farmers, government will urge OERC to cross-subsidise the hike through tariff order adjustment, he informed.
Commenting on the development, opposition members have said that a full rollback would have been better while assuring full cooperation in the proceedings of the House.
Meanwhile, Assembly has been further adjourned by the speaker till 3:00 PM.
Earlier, deadlock in Assembly continued after lack of consensus at the all-party meeting convened by the speaker to resolve the electricity tariff hike. Congress members wasted no time to raise their voice against the electricity tariff hike as soon as the proceedings began leading to adjournment of the house till 12:50 pm by the speaker.
Earlier, during the all party meeting, various members of the Assembly failed to reach a consensus over the power tariff issue at an all-party meeting convened by the Speaker. After the all-party meeting, leader of opposition Narsingh Mishra said that as of now the meeting has yielded no conclusive results and the discussions on the issue would continue.
Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said that no consensus was reached at the meeting and we would continue our protest against the power tariff hike.
BJD chief whip Anant Das said that the government will take decision keeping in mind the interests of people in mind and further discussions will be undertaken to break the logjam over the power tariff issue.
On the other hand, ruling BJD members also staged demonstration in the Assembly today protesting alleging that withdrawal of support by corporate for its Aahar scheme on the behest of BJD-led NDA government.