The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab unit applauded and thanked the chief minister Bhagwant Mann for turning Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) into a profit making unit. Coal from Pachhwara mine, clearing of pending arrears and buying a power plant helped PSPCL a great deal.
Addressing a press conference along with spokespersons Govinder Mittal and Vikram Passi, AAP Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that on the occasion of New Year CM Bhagwant Mann gave a good news to the people of Punjab by buying Goindwal Sahib power plant. For the last 25 years, it has become a trend in our country to sell government companies to private players and corporates.
Political parties and politicians take some under the table benefits and in exchange they hand over a public department to a private company. The Aam Aadmi Party is changing the politics of this country and this trend, we strengthen the public sectors and institutions. This, not only brings income to the government, but also provides facilities to common people without extra financial burden and generates jobs for our youth.
Kang added that in Delhi, when Arvind Kejriwal government focused on public education and health sectors. Government schools are reformed, mohalla clinics opened and government hospitals are improved. And all these facilities are provided to the common people for free. It decreased their financial hardships.
In Punjab too, the Mann government taking historic steps for all the public sectors. Buying a power plant to provide free electricity to the people is also one of these steps. Kang informed that Goindwal Sahib power plant,which will be named after Guru Amardass ji, has a total of 1100 acre land, out of which the plant occupies 700 acres and 400 acres is the land will be used for new projects by the Mann government.
Our state is an agrarian state, hence we have a shortage of land and the land we have acquired will be used for public welfare. We will also be able to generate cheaper electricity in this plant now which will further increase the profit of PSPCL.
Kang added in the last 5-6 years, the government paid Rs. 1800 crore to the closed thermal plant, we bought the thermal plant for half. The Aam Aadmi Party has the clear intentions of empowering the public sector and we have proved ourselves in the power sector by making PSPCL a profitable unit.
Kang said that our government is giving 300 units of free electricity per month to everyone and also cleared the pending arrears of PSPCL. During the paddy season, farmers got uninterrupted supply and our department met record demand without any problem. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was saying in Jalandhar in April that in the paddy season people will not get electricity, but the AAP government proved him wrong too and supplied record 3,435.4 lakh units in a single day.
In the AAP government our own pachhwara coal mine is also functional and our thermal plants are getting sufficient coal at lesser cost. Kang said that this is the politics of the Aam Aadmi Party. The trend of selling government institutes to take personal profits by the politicians is everywhere now but we are reversing that trend.
We are buying private companies to give people facilities without adding financial strain on them. He added that Vigilance Bureau is looking into PPAs and people responsible for looting the public exchequer for personal gains will not be spared. Kang said that the people of Punjab gave chief minister Bhagwant Mann a historic mandate and through every pro-people and pro-Punjab decision our government is living up to the expectations of people.