Chandigarh – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will launch a state-wide stir, christened ‘Bijli Andolan-2’, against the Captain Amarinder Singh government in the state indulging in an open ‘loot’ by hiking the power tariff, time and again.
The decision was taken at a meeting between the Punjab legislators, led by Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, and Delhi Chief Minister and national convener of the Party Arvind Kejriwal and in-charge Punjab affairs and Deputy Chief Minister Munish Sisodia in Delhi on Sunday.
In a joint statement issued from party headquarters, Senior BJP leader and Sunam MLA, Aman Arora and Youth Wing in-charge and legislator Meet Hayer, said that the decision was taken to in view of the recent power hike by the state Government.
Arora said that after assuming power in the state, Captain Amarinder Singh had been indulging in an open ‘loot’ by increasing power tariff in the state which, he said, was already sky high. He lamented that the electricity tariff had been hiked yet again immediately after the Lok Sabha elections were over, which reflected the anti-public face of the Government in the saddle, saying it was a ‘gift’ from the Congress government to the people of Punjab for helping it retain 8 seats in the state.
Arora further informed that the party legislators from Punjab had sought an urgent meeting with the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal in view of the recent hike in power tariff, stating the people were already paying high rate of electricity. He said that the Kejriwal government was providing far cheaper power to consumers Delhi.
The AAP leader informed that Delhi CM brought forth the well organized nexus between the electricity department and the subsequent government there was going on unchecked when the AAP government assumed power in 2015, adding that the harried consumers were being exploited at will.
Arora said the Captain government during its nearly two-and-a-half year’s tenure had hiked power tariff for as many as five times, whereas the Delhi government had, instead of increasing the tariff, reduced it substantially. He accused the Captain government of being in hand and glove with the private companies like the previous Badal government.
Quoting latest reports, Arora informed that the state Government had been charging 20 per cent over and above the per unit rate fixed by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission for domestic, commercial-industrial power consumers, stating that the government had been collecting a whopping amount of Rs 3,500 crore through various taxes and cess in the name of electricity subsidy, which, he said, was quite unfair.
Arora and Meat Hayer said that the AAP would first try to bring the Captain government on board over the recent raise in power tariff, through a written word and holding meetings with it. However, if the government failed to review its decision and mull a roll back, it would be left with choice but to hold state-level protests, like it had done earlier over the issues of wrongly raised power bills and arm-twisting it to rectify the hefty bills that the consumers had received.
