Mysuru:  Maintaining that they were major consumer of power, industrialists and farmers (IP sets) demanded a reduction in power tariff for them at the interaction meet with consumers organised by CESC (Chamundeshwari Electric Supply Company) at Rani Bahadur auditorium on Hunsur Road here this morning.

The power consumers, most of whom were industrialists, entrepreneurs and farmers, said that they were major consumers of power and a reduction in tariff should be given, as given to customers in other business establishments.

Underlining the need for reduction in tariff, the industrialists and farmers wanted the CESC to bracket them as high power consumers and given them a discount in tariff.

Ashwath Narayan, a domestic consumer, alleged that the CESC was lethargic in addressing consumer complaints.

Urging for more transparency in power connections, he wanted to know why CESC was collecting Meter Security Deposit for temporary connections, when there is no provision to do so.

Industrialist Jayanth complained about poor maintenance of transformers and urged the authorities for a proper pre-maintenance of transformers to ensure non-stop supply of power.

Some farmers demanded discrimination in the sanction of power transformers. They wanted CESC to sanction transformers based on the seniority of applications and also regular maintenance of transformers so that frequent breakdowns can be prevented.

JKVR Shetty, a city resident, demanded introduction of Electronic Clearance System for payment of power bills.

Earlier, CESC Director (Technical) Aftab Ahmed and Superintending Engineer (SE) Munigopal Raju gave a brief on the purpose of the interaction meet.

CESC MD H.N. Gopalkrishna, who addressed the gathering, said that CESC welcomes suggestions, advise or tips on more efficient functioning of the power company.

Chief Engineer Manjunath, Executive Engineer Chikkalingegowda, AEE C.M. Keshavamurthy, Chief Finance Officer Shivanna, Mysuru Industries Association (MIA) General Secretary Suresh Kumar Jain and others were present at the meet in which more than 200 power consumers took part.