Varanasi Weavers on Indefinite Strike Against Power Tariff Hike

The weavers in Varanasi have gone on an indefinite strike in protest of unusually high power tariffs hike by the Yogi government for them. Nearly twenty-five thousand of weavers in this internationally renowned center of silk sarees have shut down their looms with the demand to withdraw the hike which is another blow on their livelihood after the inhuman lockdown.

The weavers had to pay a fixed rent for power connections on their looms at the rate of Rs 65 and 120 depending upon the size of the loom machine till December last. Now they have to shell out the tariff on per unit consumption basis as per UP Gov's GO to be in effect since 1 Jan 2020.

This is so ridiculous that when whole country is striving to come out from the disastrous impact of cruelly imposed and ultimately failed lockdown and an unprecedented fall in the GDP, the Yogi Government in UP continues to display its heightened insensitivities against the weavers of Varanasi, most of whom are very poor.

There is general sense prevailing that the governments in all states as well as in the center must raise expenditure to improve the demand, and for that must tax the ultra-rich and subsidize the poor substantially, to compensate the disastrous fall in the GDP. But ironically the BJP Government in UP is hell bent on further breaking the backbone of the common people by more and more burdening them with more tariffs and taxes.

CPIML demands from UP government to withdraw the electricity tariff hike immediately and accept all the demands of the Varanasi weavers.

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