Weavers demand restoration of flat power tariff in Nagepur
VARANASI: Weavers on Saturday staged demonstration in Nagepur, demanding that flat rate of electricity for power looms should be restored to give relief to small weavers having one or two power looms.
Nagepur is the second village Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted in 2016.
The weavers, however, thanked chief minister Yogi Adityanath for stopping recovery of electricity bill from weavers for per unit power consumption on power loom.
Several weavers from villages, including Benipur, Usrapatti, Mehandiganj, Harris, Newajkapura, Kelliher, Saudi, Galesburg and Kundra gathered on Lok Samiti premises in Nagepur and held a meeting. The weavers unanimously demanded that the electricity tariff at monthly flat rate or fix rate should be restored for power looms in the interest of weavers, said Rinku Maurya, a master weaver.
Rajesh Patel, another weaver, said the state government last year replaced the flat rate of Rs 75 per power loom with bill per unit electricity consumed by power loom. In per unit system, the monthly electricity bill per power loom comes around Rs 1,000. Many weavers cannot afford it, said Patel.
From July last year, the electricity department started recovering power bill from the weavers on per unit consumption basis. The weavers staged a protest against the per unit power billing, said Nandlal master, a social activist.
They requested the state government to suspend recovery of the electricity bill of power loom from the weavers according to the new rates, master added.
Recently, on the instructions of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, additional chief secretary Navneet Saigal spoke to the weavers and informed them that the electricity bill recovery as per new rates has been suspended temporarily, the said master said. He said that the suspension has come as a great relief for the weavers. All the weavers were thankful to the chief minister. Power loom is the source of livelihood of the weavers. Need of the hour is to save the livelihood of weavers. Master said that global pandemic corona had affected the livelihood of the weavers. The government should restore the electricity bill at monthly fix rate to power looms. There are around 1.5 lakh weavers in Varanasi. Weavers, including Rinku Maurya, Ramvilesh, Vijay Kumar, Sohrab Ali, Munnar Maharaj, Shyamsundar Patel, Sunil Ram Bachan, Sunil, were among others who attended the meeting and staged demonstration.