In a press conference held in Jalandhar today, the AamAadmi Party (AAP) leaders including state president and Lok Sabha memberBhagwant Mann, Punjab affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh, co-in-charge RaghavChadha and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema, announcedto launch a massive agitation on April 7 against the rising power prices inPunjab.
They said Captain Amarinder Singh government should providefree power to the people of Punjab on the lines of Delhi. MLAs Aman Arora,Baljinder Kaur, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and several state leaders were alsopresent on the occasion.
Addressing the media, Bhagwant Mann said that in today'sera of inflation, due to the policies of the Captain government, the risingpower prices had made the life of the people even more miserable. He said thatthe Captain government was increasing power prices day by day instead ofreducing them.
Mann said that the Aam Aadmi Party would launch a massagitation across Punjab over power bills which would force the CaptainAmarinder Singh government of Punjab to reduce power tariffs. "The massmovement will be launched next week. This movement will reach every street,every village, town and city," he added.
Mann further saidthat the party volunteers and workers will go door to door to get information aboutthe electricity bills. He said that under the agitation, the electricity billswould be burnt. Mann said that earlier the Akali Dal government and now theCongress had entered into costly agreements with private companies keeping inview their personal interests.
Jarnail Singh said that even if the Punjab governmentwould not buy power from the three private thermals of the state, thegovernment would have to pay crores of rupees to those thermals. He said thatpower was being generated in Punjab but still expensive power was beingprovided whereas there was no thermal power in Delhi but even after purchasingpower from outside the Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi was providing freepower to the people.
Showing the power bills of the people of Delhi andPunjab, Raghav Chadha showed how the Punjab government was looting the peopleand the state exchequer. He challenged the Punjab Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh to reduce the electricity bill like in Delhi.
Taking a dig at Captain Amarinder Singh, Chadha said,"We expect that all the people to whom you have sent wrong, fake and falsebills will be waived off. We are clearly challenging the Captain government towaive electricity bills like in Delhi," he added.
Meanwhile showing another bill, Chadha expressedastonishment that for a electricity bill of zero units consumption, the billwas of Rs 1,040. He said that the AAP had brought hundreds of such bills toexpose the Captain government.
MLA Aman Arora said that the people of Punjab were beingburdened by the agreements made by the government with the private companies inPunjab. He said that due to the policies of the government thousands of croresof rupees had to be paid to the private companies of Punjab because the samecommission which used to go to the Akalis now goes to the ruling Congressparty.
He said that Punjab was one of the states where thehighest unit tax was levied which was 9 paise in Chandigarh, 5 paise in UP and1 rupee 33 paise in Punjab. He said that it was due to the policies of thePunjab government that the people were getting expensive electricity.
"Had it not been the policies of the Congress andthe Akalis to fill their pockets, the people of Punjab today would have gotfree electricity like the people of Delhi," said Arora. He said that theAam Aadmi Party would launch a mass agitation to reduce the price ofelectricity in future which would be continued till the people started gettingfree electricity.