HUBLI: Federation of Karnatak Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FKCCI) stated that Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) should ask the chief minister and the energy minister to keep away from speaking on the power tariff hike.Advocate to the federation, Shashidhar Prabhu during his submission before the commission stated that Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje have already stated to increase the power prices by 25 per cent. Therefore, it seems that the commission holding a public hearing is just to finish the formality, he added.“If the commission is entrusted with taking a decision on the hike, then why did the duo make such statements? It seems that the government had already decided on the issue and the public hearing was a mere formality,” he said.He said even as the registry has asked the HESCOM to submit a revised petition, the commission was going ahead with the preceding on the same petition filed earlier. He also took exception at HESCOM not filling the tariff revision forms. Moreover, it had purchased high cost energy worth `666 crore in violation of Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act. Tender processes were also not followed and HESCOM had presented fabricated information before the commission, seeking for a hike in power prices, he charged.Joining Arvind Pai, a customer form Kumata alleged that previous orders of the KERC were not being implemented. He sought to know whether HESCOM had suffered losses due to customers or inefficiency of the officials. He also demanded the commission to put a penalty on HESCOM on the lines of that of the Telecom Regulatory Authority on BSNL for its maladministration.He alleged that officials were not giving information on the paver scheme in which 120 crore was misutilised in Hubli and Belgaum divisions. He said that the system would not improve until officials and staff were transferred in inter districts and urged to provide quality power and prior information on load shedding.Managing Director of HESCOM Pankaj Kumar Pande seemed exhausted at the allegation of not holding prior meetings with the association and the public with regard to its proposal. However, he assured to make HESCOM customer friendly, by forming customer committees at the district level. He clarified that the company had not given interest free loans to employees but had only taken welfare measures. Holding a discussion with KERC, the company would come to a conclusion with regard to installation of solar water heaters in houses.
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