Chandigarh, February 9: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has always been ahead of voicing its concern over high power tariff the people of state are subjected to bear, be it through spearheading a massive ‘Bijli Andolan’ in the state or taking the issue to the streets to make the deaf dispensation hear. It may be recalled the party on Thursday kick started a campaign against the high tariff from Gharanchon and Sheron village in Sangrur Assembly segment, under the leadership state unit chief Bhagwant Mann. The power tariff has not only affected the poor but also the rich, industrialists, employees and even small-time shopkeepers alike.
In a press statement issued from the party headquarters in Chandigarh here on Saturday, leader of opposition (LoP) Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Harpal Cheema, said one lakh party volunteers would reach out to the people in the urban and rural pockets of the state to listen to their power-related problems and redress them. Cheema said that to achieve this mission, experts/trainers from among those who had been active in the Delhi movement would train as many as 5000 master volunteers in Punjab to lead the march against the menace. He said that the movement had been kick started in Sangrur by state party chief Bhagwant Mann on Friday, Sarabjit Kaur Manuke from Ludhiana on Saturday, who listened to the peoples’ grievances.
Cheema said that the volunteers would personally reach out to every consumer in the state and would apprise them how the government was charging exorbitant rate for electricity consumption. The volunteers would also relate the per unit charges the government in Delhi was charging, which was pegged at Re one per unit. They would also apprise the consumers that they were made to pay exorbitant power tariff due to an insensitive government colluding with the private companies.
Cheema further that the state government, like the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, had failed to fulfill the promises made by it to the people ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. Now AAP would now act as voice of the people to take up the issues they were faced with. He said that before the formation of the AAP government in Delhi, the Congress party and BJP were colluding with the private players to free the people of Delhi. The Kejriwal government upon assuming power in Delhi unearthed the nexus and prepared a road map to ease out the people paying hefty power bills. The people of Delhi could not ask for more than to pay their electricity bills at the rate of Re one per unit.
Cheema said that the AAP had been raising the issue of high power tariff on the floor of the House for a pretty long time and would continue to do so till the issue was finally addressed to. He said the government in the saddle would be asked to give a clarification on the issue that had been giving the consumers sleepless nights.
