Electricity employees’ pension issue: Mangaluru BJP holds protest against state govt.

Electricity employees’ pension issue: Mangaluru BJP holds protest against state govt.

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Aug 5, 2025: The BJP Mangaluru City South unit staged a protest on Monday in front of the MESCOM office (Kulasekhara subdivision) near Maroli-Jodukatte, opposing the state government’s move to collect money from consumers to fund the pensions and gratuity of electricity corporation employees, terming it as "daylight robbery."

MLA Vedavyas Kamath, addressing the gathering, said that they are not against pensions and gratuity for employees, but it is unacceptable to burden consumers with this cost. He stated that it is the state government’s responsibility to provide gratuity, but instead, the government has shifted its burden onto consumers, sparking public outrage. Kamath alleged that the government is attempting to loot crores of rupees by collecting hundreds to thousands of rupees from each household through an additional charge of 36 paise per unit. He further criticized the government for already increasing electricity tariffs, pushing people into distress, and hiking the price of smart meters from ₹2,000 to ₹10,000, which was condemned by the High Court. "Despite this, the government has not learned its lesson," he remarked.

Ramesh Kandettu, Ramesh Hegde, Lallesh Kumar, Poornima, Vasant J. Poojary, Nithin Kumar, Ravishankar Mijar, Monappa Bhandari, and others participated in the protest.