The Congress on Friday launched an agitation protesting against the hike in the power tariff approved by the Shiv Sena-BJP-controlled BEST undertaking.

Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh along with Member of Parliament Eknath Gaikwad, MLA Baba Siddique, NCP leader Sachin Ahir and a few others, on Friday, opposed the over 50 per cent tariff hike by BEST in the island city. Attacking the Sena, Singh said, “They (Sena-BJP) first approved the proposal in the corporation for tariff hike and are now rampaging on the streets of the city. The BEST is burdening the consumers with unreasonable power tariff hikes.”

Singh, along with other leaders, went to BEST headquarters to submit a proposal to roll back the tariff. “We will peacefully agitate against this hike and meet BEST administration on the issue,” Singh added. On the issue of the tariff hike by Reliance Energy Ltd, which supplies power suburbs, he said that the Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and energy minister Sunil Tatkare would resolve the issue in consultation with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

Meanwhile, the state government on Thursday requested the MERC to “look into Reliance Infrastructure’s tariff structure for consumers in suburban Mumbai and take an appropriate action if there has been an arbitrary and unjustifiable hike in tariff”. The state government has stayed the revised tariff for the next 15 days and wants the MERC to probe the revision in tariff and take a decision in a fortnight.