Chandigarh, January 7, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab, President and Member of Parliament (MP), Bhagwant Mann has said that the Aam Aadmi Party would now ‘gherao’ CM Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence in Chandigarh on January 10, against the open ‘loot’ of power in the state by the government-sponsored power mafia. He informed that the party had earlier planned to ‘gherao’ his (CM’s) residence on January 7, which had to be deferred owing to inclement weather.
In a statement issued from party headquarters on Tuesday, Bhagwant Mann questioned Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh as to why common consumer in the state was forced to pay between Rs 9 to Rs 12 for domestic power which, he claimed, was much higher compared to other states even as Punjab produced own electricity.
Mann said that on the one hand, the state of Punjab producing own electricity was selling electricity to consumers at an expensive rate, compared to other states in the country, on the other, the Kejriwal-led government in Delhi, which produced not even a single unit of power on its own, was providing cheapest electricity to the people there.
Taking a pot shot at the subsequent governments, Mann said that electricity was cheaper in Delhi, for the reason that the Aam Aadmi Party government had no share in the ‘booty’ by inking one-sided agreements with private power companies and power mafia, like Captain and Badal did in Punjab.
Mann said that had the Capt. Government been a little too sensitized about the concerns of the consumers here, it would have scrapped the expensive power purchase agreements (PPAs) inked by the then Badal government with private power companies, alleging that Captain Amarinder Singh had succumbed to the pressure of powerful power mafia active in the state.
Pointing finger at Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, the AAP MP questioned as to why he was maintain a stoic silence over the power agreements now when in power, while being the most vocal against them (PPOs) sitting in the opposition during the previous Badal regime.
Mann said that both the SAD-BJP and the Congress governments were responsible for the expensive power in the state, saying that the Congress government was a bigger defaulter than the Badals, as it had failed to auditing POWERCOM’s previous years’ accounts and scrapping the PPPs, as promised to the people before assuming power in 2017.
He blamed Captain Amarinder Singh for becoming strange bedfellows in the open ‘loot’ of power by electricity mafia on the lines of the Badals.
Mann further said that the party would lay siege on Chief Minister’s official residence in Chandigarh on January 10, against the steep power hike in electricity charges to press the government for reducing power tariff.
AAP to extend wholehearted support to nationwide strike call on January 8: Bhagwant Mann
AAP state unit president and parliamentarian Bhagwant Mann said that the party would extend its wholehearted support to the nation-wide strike call given by various farmer organisations and traders bodies across the country against the Modi government’s anti-farmers and anti-labour policies.
Bhagwant Mann said that AAP was stoutly opposed to the union government’s anti-labor reforms, privatisation of government and semi-government organizations, promoting contractual employment and outsourcing, asserting that the stir call given by the trade and peasants’ unions was against the Modi government’s stubborn stance towards the farming fraternity by not allowing remunerative price for their crop yield by implementing the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, adding that in Delhi, where labor laws were transparent and labour-friendly the Kejriwal-led government had given Delhi farmers a sigh of relief by offering them higher price for crops as per the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.
