Shimla, May 13 -- Himachal Pradesh Assembly Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur has strongly criticised the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government over the steep hike in electricity bills for irrigation purposes, calling the move "arbitrary" and "unjustified."

He said that despite repeated alerts from the opposition and protests by farmers, the state government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu failed to take any action, which he termed "extremely unfortunate."

Jairam Thakur said, "The electricity bills for irrigation connections used by farmers are shocking. Despite bringing the issue to the government's notice, there has been no proactive response, which is extremely unfortunate."

Earlier, he pointed out that farmers used...