Slash electricity tariff for poor or face stir: AAP to govt

CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state unit president Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday warned the Amarinder Singh government of an agitation if it didn’t slash electricity tariff for the poor in the next 20 days.

In a letter to the CM, Mann said power consumers in the state were paying a much higher tariff than the rates being charged in most states. “Instead of providing any relief to consumers by lowering the tariff, the Congress government has further burdened them by hiking the rates four times in the last two years,” he said at a press conference here.

The Sangrur MP said despite being a power producer, the electricity rates in Punjab were touching ₹10 per unit with small consumers, including poor Dalit households, getting bills in the range of ₹8,000-10,000. “The AAP government in Delhi, on the other hand, does not generate enough power from its own resources, but it is supplying electricity at ₹1 per unit,” he said.

Demanding a cut in rates, Mann said the government should provide relief in 20 days. “If it fails to take any measures to rectify this, we will be forced to hit the streets and start a movement against the government,” he added. Mann said the Delhi government had decided to implement the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations to give remunerative prices to farmers for their produce by pitching in to compensate them. “It will pay the farmers the gap between the minimum support price and the rate as per the commission’s formula,” he said.