RICH tributes were paid to Comrades Rama Krishna, Vishnuvardhan Reddy and Balaswamy, on the 20th anniversary of the Martyrs Day of the Electricity movement, on August 28.  The three were brutally killed by the then Telugu Desam Party government, which hiked electricity charges heavily and was vehemently implementing the World Bank dictates by putting a burden of Rs1,000 crore on the people of the united Andhra Pradesh.

The CPI(M) and Left parties initiated the struggle against the power tariff hike and later the Congress, the main opposition supported it. A call for Chalo Assembly was given and in response, huge rallies were organised in Hyderabad on August 28, 2000. The government tried to suppress the peoples’ upsurge and resorted to brutal lathi charge, water cannons and firing on peaceful protesters. That resulted in the martyrdom of the three heroes and injuring some protesters with bullet wounds and hundreds were lathi charged.

The heroic sacrifice of the martyrs could stop the consecutive governments from hiking electricity charges for domestic consumers for seven years. Even after that, the governments did it through backdoor methods like fuel surcharge adjustment, additional load etc.

State leaders of Left parties P Madhu (CPI(M)), K Ramakrishna (CPI), Polari (CPIML(New democracy)), Sudheer (SUCI), Sundarramaraju (Forward block), Brahmaiah (CPIML- New democracy)), Basha (MCPI(U)) and others paid tributes to the martyrs at the Lenin centre in Vijayawada. They pledged to take forward the struggle against the anti- people electricity reforms put forward by the BJP central government and that are being followed by the YSRCP state government.

The central government is trying to amend the Electricity Act, which results in the tariff hike and other harmful effects. Instead of opposing the anti- people attempts of the centre, the YSRCP government has been implementing those conditionalities, hurting the peoples’ interests, the leaders criticised. Meetings and gatherings were conducted throughout the state and the martyrs were remembered. They pledged to take forward the struggle against anti- people policies of the ruling classes.