Chandigarh, October 3
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema has questioned the claim of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to make electricity cheaper in the state. He also claimed that the guarantee given by Arvind Kejriwal to the people of Punjab for power had deprived the ruling Congress and the Badals of sleep. As a result, even opportunistic politicians like Manpreet Singh Badal, who was once the Finance Minister of the Badal government and has been the Finance Minister of the Congress government for the last four-and-a-half-years, have remained silent on the issue of expensive power.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Sunday, Harpal Singh Cheema slammed the assurance being given by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to his Congress leaders to make electricity cheaper in the state and said, “Be it late, but finally, the Finance Minister came to know that electricity in Punjab is very expensive and a big public issue. If the Aam Aadmi Party had not taken a firm stand against the costly and unilateral agreements made by the previous Badal government with the private power companies, if it would not go door to door under the power agitation to mobilize the people of Punjab against the exorbitant electricity bills and power mafia and with the formation of the AAP government in 2022; if Kejriwal had not announced guarantee programs like free and uninterrupted power supply of up to 300 units, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal would never have talked about cheap electricity. Not only that, even if the elections were not held on time, they should not have talked about the issue of power, because like the Badals, the ruling Congressmen are also colluding with the power companies.”
Cheema said in a democracy, the basic duty of the government is to provide maximum relief and facilities for the welfare of the people. Ensuring that there is no socio-economic or any other exploitation of the masses at any level; but the reverse has been happening in Punjab for the last about three decades. Together with the mafia, the government here is looting the resources and the people of the state. There are dozens of such examples including power mafia, sand mafia, transport mafia, cable mafia and liquor mafia, he asserted.
Harpal Singh Cheema said that due to this the Aam Aadmi Party has to seek clarification from the Finance Minister as to what is the policy of the government to make electricity cheaper. “Is the government making electricity cheaper by canceling expensive power agreements with private power companies? Or are the people being misled once again in the name of cheap electricity for a short period of time by taking out more loans to get votes?” he said.
The AAP leader said that Punjab had incurred a debt of over Rs 3 lakh crore during the last 25 years of the Badal-BJP and the Congress rule. He said the loan is also being taken to repay the interest. Cheema said that no government can distribute relief to the people by taking loans. In the end, the burden of such announcements and enticing schemes falls on the people of the state. So, the Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi have to make it clear with which financial scheme is the electricity being made cheaper, he added. Cheema argued that the people of Punjab could not get permanent relief from the costly power unless the deadly power purchase agreements with the power companies were canceled.
