Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday alleged that the greatest ever power scandal in the country was gradually unraveling itself in Punjab. 

He said that in country’s “greatest ever power scandal”, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal handed over power projects to private companies on a platter, resulting in a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees to the state exchequer, which was being passed on to the PSPCl consumers. 

Capt Amarinder announced that the Congress government will review these projects to make up for the losses and ensure that the state’s interests are protected which have otherwise been surrendered to the private power companies by the Akali-BJP government for obvious reasons, the Akalis and the Badals are infamous for. 

“What is the logic in making commitment to private companies for buying powerIJ” he asked, while adding, “With the result, the state, which is already reeling under financial crisis, has to make payment to the companies without consuming their power”. He said that the brunt was being borne by the common consumers who were being slapped with exorbitant bills to facilitate payment to the private companies.

“Much against the prevailing practices and the recommendations of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission that the power projects to private companies should be allotted through competitive bidding, Sukhbir allotted these through ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU) route, which are heavily in favour of the private companies…And now the state has to bear the brunt and the heavy financial losses,” he pointed out. The former Chief Minister claimed that he had consistently been raising the concern over the way the power projects were allotted to the private companies and his stand has now been vindicated.