In a press conference held in Jalandhar today, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders including state president and Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Mann, Punjab affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh, co-in-charge Raghav Chadha and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema, announced to launch a massive agitation on April 7 against the rising power prices in Punjab.
They said Captain Amarinder Singh government should provide free 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 also present on the occasion.
Addressing the media, Bhagwant Mann said that in today's era of inflation, due to the policies of the Captain government, the rising power prices had made the life of the people even more miserable. He said that the Captain government was increasing power prices day by day instead of reducing them.
Mann said that the Aam Aadmi Party would launch a mass agitation across Punjab over power bills which would force the Captain Amarinder Singh government of Punjab to reduce power tariffs. "The mass movement will be launched next week. This movement will reach every street, every village, town and city," he added.
Mann further said that the party volunteers and workers will go door to door to get information about the electricity bills. He said that under the agitation, the electricity bills would be burnt. Mann said that earlier the Akali Dal government and now the Congress had entered into costly agreements with private companies keeping in view their personal interests.
Jarnail Singh said that even if the Punjab government would not buy power from the three private thermals of the state, the government would have to pay crores of rupees to those thermals. He said that power was being generated in Punjab but still expensive power was being provided whereas there was no thermal power in Delhi but even after purchasing power from outside the Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi was providing free power to the people.
Showing the power bills of the people of Delhi and Punjab, Raghav Chadha showed how the Punjab government was looting the people and the state exchequer. He challenged the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder 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 false bills will be waived off. We are clearly challenging the Captain government to waive electricity bills like in Delhi," he added.
Meanwhile showing another bill, Chadha expressed astonishment that for a electricity bill of zero units consumption, the bill was of Rs 1,040. He said that the AAP had brought hundreds of such bills to expose the Captain government.
MLA Aman Arora said that the people of Punjab were being burdened by the agreements made by the government with the private companies in Punjab. He said that due to the policies of the government thousands of crores of rupees had to be paid to the private companies of Punjab because the same commission which used to go to the Akalis now goes to the ruling Congress party.
He said that Punjab was one of the states where the highest unit tax was levied which was 9 paise in Chandigarh, 5 paise in UP and 1 rupee 33 paise in Punjab. He said that it was due to the policies of the Punjab government that the people were getting expensive electricity.
"Had it not been the policies of the Congress and the Akalis to fill their pockets, the people of Punjab today would have got free electricity like the people of Delhi," said Arora. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party would launch a mass agitation to reduce the price of electricity in future which would be continued till the people started getting free electricity.