Bandh against power supply halt to Sai trust

Shops and establishments remained closed in the temple town of Puttaparthy in Anantapur district in protest against the Andhra Pradesh Government’s order removing power subsidy hitherto enjoyed by the Sathya Sai Trust.

The trust operates philanthropic organisations such as a super speciality hospital and a university.
The all-party Joint Action Committee also organised a rally and submitted a memorandum to the Transco department on Sunday demanding the withdrawal of the government order that slaps a commercial slab of Rs 6.25 per unit rate on the Sathya Sai institutions.

“The same government that prostrated before Baba when he was alive is now trying to choke the institutions he had built.

The government should withdraw the order,” said B Chandrasekhar of the YSR Congress Party.
 Adapa Vemanarayana of the CPI, Kota Satyanarayana of the Congress and V Chenna Kesavulu of the Telugu Desam Party also participated in the rally.

Only recently did the Andhra Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation (AP Transco) slap a notice on the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, asking it to pay electricity bill arrears of Rs 3.35 crore pending for the last 15 months.

The amount mainly pertains to power consumption in Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prashanti Nilayam and other institutions being run by the trust in Puttaparthi since March 2010, sources in AP Transco said in its notice to the trust.

The trust has been enjoying a huge subsidy from the state-run corporation as a public charitable organisation. “All these years, the trust has been charged nominal power bills.

 The subsidy was being borne by the state government directly. However, since March 2010, the government has not released the subsidy and we are now compelled to issue notices to the trust to recover our dues,” an official in Anantapur said.

Following the notice, the government officials who used to revere Puttaparthy as the abode of god, also initiated action on the town by disconnecting the power supply to Puttaparthy town following dues of Rs 55 lakh.

With no proper response from the town administration pertaining to clearance of dues, Transco officials disconnected power supply,  created confusion among devotees. From evening till past midnight, there was no power supply.

Three months ago, the Puttaparthi village panchayat was upgraded into a municipality.