Chandigarh, August 11
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab president and MP Bhagwant Mann has alleged that the Congress, Akali Dal Badal and the BJP had always used Dalits and poors as a vote bank. The latest example of this is the 4.37 lakh Dalit consumers who are availing 200 units of free electricity; from whom Rs 137.56 crore of outstanding up to the year 2016, under the free scheme was now being collected; because the Congress government has run away from paying these arrears.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Wednesday, Bhagwant Mann disclosed the previous Badal-led SAD-BJP government had implemented 200 units of free power scheme to garner votes from Dalits and poor sections; but no far-sighted provision of money was made to keep the scheme going. Under which, till March 31, 2016, the government owed Rs 137.56 crore to Powercom P-1 under this scheme, he added.
Mann said the present Congress government had refused to pay the arrears and had asked Powercom (Electricity Board) to recover Rs 137.56 crore from the pockets of 4.37 lakh beneficiary Dalit families; which was a total betrayal of the Dalit and poor society. The AAP demanded the Congress government should immediately reverse this anti-Dalit and anti-poor move.
Taking a dig at the Captain government, Bhagwant Mann said, “On the one hand, the Congress government has always been shouting slogans to provide free facilities to the poors and Dalits and on the other hand, it is running away from providing only Rs 137 crore help to the poor section,” he said. Mann further said if the Congress had been a little more serious about the Dalits, it would have taken the money from the pockets of the Badals instead of the poor-Dalits and would have filed a case of fraud against them (Badals) for exposing their anti-Dalit face.
Bhagwant Mann also sought clarification from Sukhbir Badal on this issue, who was now making false promises of 400 units instead of 200 units. The AAP leader alleged that earlier the Badal family looted in the name of providing free electricity to the Dalits and the poor; and now the Captain government was also cheating the Dalits and the poor by taking votes in the name of this scheme.
He said in Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government has made arrangements to provide free electricity, water, education and other facilities in a planned manner and no arrears of any kind are collected from anyone. Demanding that the election manifesto be made a legal document, Mann reiterated that with the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab, the deadly power purchase deals would be canceled and 300 units of free electricity per bill would be provided to the beneficiaries of the state with old outstanding bills to be waived off.
