Chandigarh, July 20
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has demanded special financial concessions and uninterrupted power supply at Rs 5 per unit to the industries and commercial establishments which are facing financial and power crisis due to the deadly policies of the government. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Tuesday, senior AAP leader and MLA Aman Arora and Industry and Trade Wing state president Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar accused the ruling Congress party of failing miserably to provide uninterrupted power supply to the industrial sector of the state at Rs 8 per unit and to the IT sector at Rs 9 per unit.
Taking a dig at Captain Amarinder Singh, Aman Arora said, “There is a difference and lie between the words and deeds of Captain Amarinder. The price being charged per unit from the industrial and IT sectors exposes the Congress. Not only this, crores of rupees are being spent from the exchequer on huge hoardings and billboards for propaganda about Rs 5 per unit,” he added. Arora said that there was not a single industry in the whole of Punjab which was getting electricity at Rs 5 per unit. “With fixed charges, power duty and other surcharges, the average price is Rs 8 per unit for industries and Rs 9 per unit for IT and commercial establishments,” he said.
The AAP leader said that the change in slab rates due to untimely taking of manual meter readings during the lockdown has further affected the industrial and commercial sectors. Aman Arora said that due to the government’s policy of killing industry and trade, the industrialists of Punjab were forced to meet the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath to move their industries; which was a slap in the face of the Congress government; because the industrialists were not bothered by Uttar Pradesh’s high crime rate but by the Captain government’s mafia.
Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar, on behalf of the Industry and Trade Wing demanded that in order to save and grow the industry of Punjab, special financial packages, broker free facilities and special financial concessions should be given. “Under which, from March 2020 to the fiscal year (March 31, 2022), 100 percent discount of fixed charge on existing industrial and all commercial establishments (schools, shopkeepers, gyms, marriage palaces, amusement parks, cinema-multiplexes, IT sector, and malls) should be given,” he said.
