Chandigarh, May 4, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state unit president and Member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann has vehemently opposed the decision of the state power department (PSPCL) to send hefty power bills to the consumers in the state and wanted Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to immediately withdraw the bills sent during the lockdown period.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Monday, Bhagwant Mann said that sending electricity bills to consumers in the state during the extended lockdown was not fair by any logic, saying that people were sitting cooped up at their homes with no source of income to keep their kitchen fires burning.
In such hard times, how could government even expect them to pay the hefty electricity bills? He demanded that the process of sending bills to the consumers during lockdown should be stopped forthwith and withdrawn so that the people fighting a big battle against corona could heave a sigh of relief.
Bhagwant Mann termed the raising of hefty bills on the basis of last year’s electricity consumption, without meter reading, as blatant looting of power consumers by the PSPCL. Mann added that neither this year’s weather nor the unusual situation could be compared to that of previous year’s, saying that power consumption during the months of March, April and May was much higher than that of current year’s due to the extremely hot weather conditions last year and, therefore, the bills for these months could not be raised on the basis of last year’s consumption.
Mann said that Aam Aadmi Party decry the dictatorial decision of the PSPCL, adding that if the government in the saddle did not reverse its decision on the exorbitant electricity bills, AAP would take the people along and spearhead state-wide protest against the government and go for a legal recourse, if needed.
The AAP leader said the Capt. Amarinder Singh government in Punjab and Narendra Modi government at the Center should announce some relief measures so that the people could make ends meet. On the other hand, he alleged, that besides the hefty power bills being sent to consumers, toll plazas had reopened during the lockdown.
He added that diesel-petrol, cooking gas and other petroleum products prices had plummeted worldwide, yet the governments had not lowered the diesel-petrol. Inflation had touched a new high, as prices of ration, pulses and vegetables had sky-rocketed, asking wasn’t it the prime duty of the governments to provide relief to the people during the hard times?
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