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Shiv Sena campaign against Reliance power firm
Friday, 13 June 2003, 19:30 IST
MUMBAI: Alongside a shrill sons-of-the-soil campaign, the Shiv Sena is mobilising this city's residents for a campaign against Reliance Energy Ltd. over high electricity tariffs.
Street corner signboards - the party's traditional medium to mobilise the masses -- have for months now been asking electricity consumers to lodge complaints of high electricity bills with the nearest Sena office.
Having collected a large number of complaints, a Shiv Sena delegation met senior officials of Reliance Energy, formerly BSES Ltd., earlier this week.
"Unlike BEST, BSES/Reliance does not have any social obligation like running a public transport service, so the company should charge lower tariffs," Sadanand Maske, a Shiv Sena leader in Borivli, north Mumbai, told IANS.
The municipality promotes BEST, or Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking. BEST supplies power to south Mumbai and uses the earnings to run the city's bus service.
Reliance officials, confirming the meeting with the Shiv Sena delegation, said the activists were only trying to highlight the problems of power consumers. They assured Reliance would work towards solving those problems.
Incidentally, Reliance has admitted to excess billing of a large number of consumers under the old provisional billing system employed by the former management of BSES. As a result of the corrective measures it is now undertaking, many consumers are receiving bills as low as 
70 per month in some suburbs.
Apart from Reliance Energy/BSES Ltd., the Tata Electricity Company and BEST supply electricity to Mumbai.
The city municipal corporation, which promotes BEST, has for long been demanding that BEST be allowed to sell power in all areas where its buses ply. BEST buses cover the entire city of Mumbai, its suburbs as well as the neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai areas.
The Shiv Sena has also launched a campaign to shut Mumbai's doors to "outsiders" and has threatened to crack down on poor migrants who moved into this bustling city after 1995.
The opposition party is taking up such populist issues just months ahead of state assembly elections, which are due early next year. A Congress-led coalition currently rules Maharashtra.
Source: IANS
70 per month in some suburbs.
Apart from Reliance Energy/BSES Ltd., the Tata Electricity Company and BEST supply electricity to Mumbai.
The city municipal corporation, which promotes BEST, has for long been demanding that BEST be allowed to sell power in all areas where its buses ply. BEST buses cover the entire city of Mumbai, its suburbs as well as the neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai areas.
The Shiv Sena has also launched a campaign to shut Mumbai's doors to "outsiders" and has threatened to crack down on poor migrants who moved into this bustling city after 1995.
The opposition party is taking up such populist issues just months ahead of state assembly elections, which are due early next year. A Congress-led coalition currently rules Maharashtra.
Source: IANS