Chandigarh, February 23
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab Senior Leader and Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema said that the decision of the Union Government to privatize the Chandigarh Power Department, which is currently operating perfectly fine and in profit, shows the anti-people policy of BJP and part of BJP’s nefarious plan to sell our country to few capitalists. He said that there was no reason for the government to privatize a government department which was running at a profit of over Rs. 200 crore but the BJP government is once again benefitting its ‘corporate friends’ at the expense of common people.
Harpal Cheema said that it was not a matter of a single state or single public sector. The manner in which the central government has sold the public sectors for pennies to their favourite capitalists is worrisome and the people should oppose it outright. Harpal Cheema citing the privatisation of government airline, LIC, railways, banks, telecommunications etc. said that if this policy of the NDA government was not opposed and stopped at time it will be fatal for common people and our economy.
Harpal Cheema said that during the Corona pandemic, we experienced how the private sector works for its own benefit without caring about the people and exploit them financially in case of helplessness. That is why public sectors were set up where people pay taxes and in return the government provides them basic facilities. He said that the BJP government had continuously increased the tax burden on the common people and when it came time to use that tax for the benefit of the people, the anti-people party sold the public sectors to the private players. He said that like BJP and SAD, Congress has always been in favour of privatisation and they’ve proved it in Punjab time and again.
He said that today the power department of Chandigarh was being sold at a much lower rate than its actual price despite being in huge profit, similarly the public sectors of Punjab and other states would be sold tomorrow. He said that SAD-BJP government in Punjab had signed expensive PPAs (Power Purchase Agreement) which were still costing the people of Punjab. He targeted the Congress and said that Channi government lied about cancelling those PPAs and betrayed the people of Punjab. He said that these anti-people parties only see the benefit of themselves and their close associates and they don’t care about the plight of common people. That is why the Aam Aadmi Party has again taken the initiative to provide facilities to the people with public tax because that’s how it should be. People fulfil their responsibility by paying taxes and governments should do their part and facilitate people with that money.
