By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 16, 2015 :

Energy minister Pranab Prakash Das said, “Keeping in view the interests of the farmers of the state, the government has filed a review petition with the OERC to roll back the hike for agricultural sector and adjust the same by cross subsidizing in the tariff order.”

Speaking to media persons, the minister said there is no politics over the review petition. “There should be no politics over it. Our government is always committed to protect the interests of the farmers. The decision to file the review petition was taken as per the announcement made in the Assembly recently,” he added.

The OERC on March 24 had hiked the new electricity tariff for the 2015-16 raising the tariff by 20 paise per unit for consumers in the domestic category and 40 paise per unit for the farming sector.

Earlier last month, the energy minister had assured the state Assembly that the government would file a review petition with the OERC seeking withdrawal of the hike announced for the agricultural sector.