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November 30

Maharashtra women to protest against inflated power bills on Friday

Mumbai: Women activists from Mumbai Mahila Congress (MMC) will protest outside 15 railway stations here on Friday evening over “inflated” power bills of Adani Electricity and recent hike in rates of LPG gas cylinders.

MMC president Ajanta Yadav said they had received many complaints from Adani consumers of hefty bills in the past two months, and want the power utility firm to look into every case and redress the issue at the earliest. She said the protest will also be against the huge rise in LPG cylinder costs, whose rates rose to Rs 912 for a 14.2 kg cylinder on November 1.

Nearly 500 protestors are expected to gather outside each station where the protest will be organised from 4pm to 6pm on Friday, she said. The police will step up bandobast to ensure there is no law and order problem.

"The protest will be to highlight the issues before office-goers who will be returning home,” said city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam. Protests will be held at Borivli, Kandivli, Malad, Vile Parle, Andheri, Bandra, Dadar, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Kurla, Byculla, Masjid Bunder, Sewree, Chembur and Govandi

An Adani spokesperson said billing is strictly in line with MERC’s tariff order. “Electricity consumption increases in October after withdrawal of monsoon, due to increasing temperatures and humidity. Residential slab rates are applied telescopically; when consumption increases, higher units fall under progressively higher slab rates. Due to this, increase in bill amount with increase in units is non-linear, that is bills increase significantly as more and more units fall into higher slabs, he said.

“Increased consumption (units) combined with tariff rates approved by MERC increased the bill amount for October consumption bills. This is a natural phenomenon and is repeated every year. Further, Adani Electricity or any distribution licensee, cannot charge any tariff other than that approved by MERC, he said. “We are addressing customer queries by educating them and providing factual information. Customers can email their billing/tariff related queries to billsupport.aeml@adani.com or can reach our 24x7 helpline 19122."

An Adani official clarified that “the tariff increase had no correlation to Adani taking over the Mumbai distribution business. It is only a coincidence that the timing of tariff revision coincided with the takeover”.

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