Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a stern warning to the Omar Abdullah led National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir, threatening a mass gherao of the Civil Secretariat on September 2 if the recently announced electricity tariff hike is not withdrawn. The warning came from BJP J&K Spokesperson Manzoor Bhat on Monday, who accused the ruling dispensation of piling fresh financial burdens on an already struggling population.
Bhat said people across the Union Territory are contending with frequent power cuts, escalating living costs and a long list of unfulfilled government promises, making the additional tariff burden particularly unjustified at this time. He pointed to the scale of central assistance flowing into Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the Centre has estimated grants of nearly ₹58,218 crore for the Union Territory in 2026-27, alongside a UT government allocation of roughly ₹9,300 crore earmarked for power purchase. Against this backdrop, he questioned the rationale for imposing a fresh tariff increase on ordinary consumers.
The BJP leader acknowledged that the government has been extending substantial subsidies to offset the power sector’s revenue shortfall, but argued that despite this support, consumers are still being made to absorb a 6.83 percent hike in electricity tariffs effective September 1. He drew a sharp distinction between those who can absorb the increase without difficulty, pointedly referencing retired senior bureaucrats now aligned with the government’s position, and the poor and middle class families for whom every additional rupee on the power bill represents a genuine strain on household budgets.
Bhat also revisited one of the National Conference’s key electoral promises, the pledge of 200 units of free electricity to consumers, asserting that the government’s current course runs directly counter to that commitment. He said the administration should honour the assurances it gave to voters rather than deepening the financial hardship of the people it promised to help.
Framing the tariff hike as an “anti-people decision,” the BJP called on the National Conference government to reverse the increase immediately and extend relief to consumers across the Union Territory. Bhat cautioned that failure to act would leave the party with no option but to mobilise a public march to the Secretariat on September 2, and urged the government not to force citizens onto the streets to have their legitimate grievances addressed.
The threatened protest adds to a growing list of flashpoints between the opposition BJP and the ruling National Conference over governance and public welfare issues since the elected government took charge in Jammu and Kashmir, with the power tariff dispute now emerging as a fresh point of confrontation ahead of the September deadline.
