Mangaluru : Former minister and Congress leader B. Ramanath Rai has said that the government has hit hard the poor by increasing electricity tariff at a time when people are already distressed due to Covid lockdown and fuel price hike.

Speaking to reporters at the Congress office here on June 16, Wednesday, he said some states have waived electricity bills of the lockdown period while in our state there has been power tariff hike twice during a one year period.

He also claimed that the Electricity Supply Companies were functioning efficiently during the Congress regime while they were running under loss now.

Pointing out that there is excess power generation in the state, he said the government was purchasing from Adani Power and other companies and by acting favourably to the companies was burdening the common man. He demanded that the government drop the power tariff hike.

Former MLA J R Lobo, District Congress President Harish Kumar, party leaders Shashidhar Hegde, Naveen D’Souza, Pratibha Kulai and others were present.