When consumers sweat, Pune politicians cool heels

At a time when the state is reeling under severe power shortage and consumers are at the receiving end due to load-shedding, the political fraternity from Pune region were absent during the public hearing by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (Merc).

The meeting was about the proposed tariff hike by Mahadiscom. The event, which took place at the Council Hall on Wednesday, would have provided an opportunity to the elected representatives to discuss various problems plaguing the power sector in the state.

Pune region — consisting of the districts of Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur and Solapur — has a galaxy of national and state level leaders who are MPs and MLAs or MLCs. Among them are Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ajit Pawar, Neelam Gorhe, Supriya Sule and Udayanraje Bhosale.
But none of them turned up before Merc to oppose the proposed tariff hike by Mahadiscom. When Merc chairman, VP Raja, inquired whether there was any MP or MLA present in the hall to make a presentation, there was no response.
More than 70 organisations and people from Pune region were to make presentations before the commission on the petition of Mahadiscom. Merc had allotted a special time slot for sitting and former MPs, MLAs and MLCs in preference to consumers.
Pune region is represented by 10 Lok Sabha members, including Union minister of state for coal Pratik Patil and firebrand farmer leader Raju Shetty. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesman, Prakash Jawadekar, who lives in Pune, is a member of the Rajya Sabha.
None of the MPs from Pune district — Shivajirao Adhalrao, Gajanan Babar and Supriya Sule — attended the public hearing. City Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi is in Tihar jail following the Commonwealth Games scam, so his attendance was ruled out.
There are 11 MLAs in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, from the senior-most Girish Bapat to the newly elected Bhimrao Tapkir; but none of them were present for the hearing. Five MLCs — Ulhas Pawar, Mohan Joshi, Neelam Gorhe, Dipti Chaudhari and Anil Bhosale — live in the city, but were absent.
A representative of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Ranjit Shirole, presented the problems of consumers and commented on the proposed tariff hike. The district general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Ajit Abhyankar, also attended the hearing.
After representatives of power companies made their presentation, consumer representatives made out their cases against the proposed tariff hike.