AAP’s district-level protests against hefty power bills enter 2nd day
Captain govt has left Badals far behind in terms of ‘loot’ of consumers through electricity bills
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh 19-Jun-2020
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab on Friday handed over memorandums to the government through deputy commissioners (DCs) of the remaining 11 districts of Punjab against the inflated electricity bills being thrusted upon the commercial and industrial units as also on domestic consumers in the state during the lockdown, demanding a complete waiver. The protests were led by state's trade wing on the second day today.In a statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh on Friday, state convener of the Bijli Morcha and MLA Meet Hayer, state trade wing president Nina Mittal and co-president Anil Thakur said that on Friday memorandums were submitted to the Captain Government through Deputy Commissioners of Ferozepur, Fazilka, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Mohali, Ropar, SBS Nagar, Gurdaspur, seeking relief in the hefty electricity bills during the lockdown period.Meet Hayer said that had the previous Badal government in collusion with the power mafia not shut down government thermal plants in the state and entered into expensive and one-sided power pacts with private thermal companies, the power consumers of Punjab would not have to face the heat of exorbitant electricity. He added the Capt. Amarinder Singh government was equally responsible for costly power in te state and wanton ‘loot’ of consumers by not scrapping Private Power Agreements (PPAs) and pedalling false promise to reviving the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant at Bathinda, adding that the Captain Government had left the Badals far behind in terms of the ‘loot. Hayer said that the government in the saddle had not only decided to shut down the Bathinda Thermal Plant on the occasion of its centenary year, but had started doling its prime land worth billions of rupees to its patronised mafia lords.Speaking on the occasion Nina Mittal and Anil Thakur said that the even the traders, businessmen and industrialists, considered to be the lifeline of state economy, were not spared and were subjected to an open ‘loot’ in the name of fixed charges for electricity, saying a recent example of the Captain government came to the fore when the government announced a financial stimulus of Rs 350 crore in the form of two months power to medium and large scale industries during the lockdown/ curfew, thus backtracking on the promise made to them.They added that while the industrialists had been directed to run their industries at half the capacity and with equal number of manpower, how justifiable it was then to collect fixed charges from them for the lockdown period during which their establishments remained closed, lamenting that the industry had been made to pay Rs 15-20 per unit due to low production during the lean lockdown period.