A high-level delegation led by senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai and legislator Arvind Sawant today called on Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, who also holds the energy portfolio to protest against the hike in power rates.

``We urged Deputy Chief Minister to reconsider the hike since it is directly affecting a large number of domestic consumers,'' Desai said.

Desai submitted to Munde that though the Maharashtra State Electricity Board has hiked the power rates by six per cent, a section of the media has stated that the increase was in the range of 40 to 108 per cent.

The Shiv Sena has urged Munde that there should be no hike upto consumption of 150 units and there should be coordination between MSEB, Tata Electric Company, Bombay Suburban Electric Supply and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and TransportUndertaking.

Munde said after his meeting with Sena leaders, they were fully satisfied and now there was no complaint against the MSEB. ``I have agreed to convene a meeting of senior officials of the MSEB, BSES, TEC and BEST with Shiv Sena leaders,'' Munde added.

Answering a question, Munde said upto 100 units there is no hike in the rates, while the hike for units between 100 and 200 is negligible. ``The hike will not be applicable to 90 per cent of the consumers, who are consuming less than 100 units. According to my information, consumers utilising more than 200 units are less than five per cent, who will be directly affected by the hike,'' Munde said.

Munde said while the hike proposed by MSEB was to the extent of Rs 1,150 crore, his government modified the proposal to net a meagre Rs 750 crore to protect the interest of the consumers.

He said the authority to grant permission for BSES tariff increase rests with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and both BSES and TEC had not asked the StateGovernment for permission to hike their tariff.

Replying to a query, he said the decision to set up the Tariff Regulatory Authority (TRA) would be made within two months. The TRA will comprise one chairman and two members. He also said that he is part of the four-member team representing India at the world energy conference to be held in Houston from September 13 to 18.

The delegation is being led by Union Power Minister P Kumarmangalam and comprises besides Munde himself, Union Coal Minister Dilip Roy and Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. He will also meet industrialists in UK for the `Agro Advantage Maharashtra' where he will be accompanied by Chief Secretary P Subramanayam, MSEB Chairman Ashok Basak and Energy Secretary Satish Tripathi.

Regarding the Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp Munde said the private company has been made a wholly government-owned firm. In the first phase, 50,000 houses will be built and only MHADA plots would be developed for the project. The BJP will provide fullco-operation for the speedy implementation of the scheme, he added.

Housing Minister Suresh Dada Jain has been made chairman and Minister of State for Housing Raj Purohit will be the vice-chairman of the company. Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had approved the committee report, Munde said.

Replying to a question, Munde reiterated his statement made during a recent interview in a south-based fortnightly magazine disapproving the remarks made by Srikrishna Commission which probed the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai, against Thackeray, Manohar Joshi and Sena MP Madhukar Sarpotdar.