At a public hearing in Chennai on Monday, a cross-section of domestic and industrial consumers urged the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) to reject Tangedco’s tariff hike proposal. Some of them also called for fixing responsibility for the huge losses suffered by the State power utility, alleging corruption and mismanagement.
The public hearing, chaired by M. Chandrasekar, Chairman of TNERC, and K. Venkatesan, member of the Commission, went on for over nine hours, with industry representatives constituting a majority of the participants.
May 17 Movement coordinator Thirumurugan Gandhi, who participated in the hearing, pointed out that 20 years ago, Tangedco was making profit. “Even 10 years ago, the loss was ₹45,000 crore. Now, it has increased three-fold. Who is responsible for the losses? Is it due to mismanagement and the power purchases? Why do you want to punish the consumer for management inefficiencies,” he asked.
