PURC is dancing to VRA's tunes; Group threatens demo

A Group in Tamale has accused the PURC of dancing to the tune of VRA, the Nation's power producer in its bid to increase electricity tariffs.

Alarmed by attempts to increase utility tariffs, The Progressive Citizens of Tamale, a group, has served notice of embarking on ceaseless demonstrations over attempts to upwardly adjust utility tariffs.

“If the Public Utility Regulatory Commission allows the utility service providers to increase utility tariffs, we will mobilize people to hit the principal streets of Tamale in protest,” the group threatened.

This threat comes in the wake of ongoing heated debates on plans to increase utility tariffs.

Judging its achievement with a similar demonstration last year in connection with attempts to install new prepaid meters in the Tamale metropolis, the group’s Secretary, Baba A. Bashiru in an interview with Citi News warned, “It is not about increasing tariffs", VRA and PURC are one entity because PURC is dancing to the tune of VRA and they don’t have the plight of the people at heart and so we the Progressive Citizens of Tamale will say no to any tariff increment.”

“In fact since time immemorial we have not even had any level of guarantee from VRA and PURC that there will be improvement in service delivery,” Baba observed.

In a related development, a group calling itself the Adentan Concerned Citizens Association also prompted Ghanaians to kick against such move.

The group said the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana Water Company Limited have no right to increase utility tariffs when there are shortfalls in delivery of services.

The group’s Spokesperson, Jimmy Carter, blamed government for its failure to implement Anas Aremiyao Anas’s expose on the uncovered corrupt deals at the Electricity Company of Ghana.

“If you remember Anas did a story about the rot at ECG and up to date government has done nothing about his discoveries and yet they want to worsen our current hardships by proposing an increment in utility tariffs.”

He impressed upon government to dissolve the ECG Board of Directors and engage the services of competent people who will rejuvenate the ailing Electricity Company of Ghana.

He said Ghanaians could no longer tolerate the consequences of the maladministration of people charged with the responsibility to manage various sectors of the economy.