Condemning the Congress Government for repeated power hikes, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday said that its latest proposal to hike power tariff by another eight per cent would result in untold sufferings to the common man as well as trade and industry which was reeling from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The party demanded the Government to roll back its decision immediately. “PSPCL’s requisition for a eight percent hike in power tariff for the 2021-22 fiscal amounted to transfer its own inefficiencies on the consumers. We condemn this anti-people step,” said former Minister Sikander Singh Maluka.

He said that the Government should provide much-needed relief to the common man as well as trade and industry instead of seeking hefty power hikes.

Maluka said that the Congress Government had already increased power tariff by more than 30 percent since coming to power in Punjab and the latest proposed hike would make power rates in the State among the costliest in the country.

Asking the Congress government not to penalize the people for its failure to run PSPCL on professional lines, Maluka said that the PSPCL had run up a revenue loss of Rs 8,363 crores during the last three years.

“We demand that the Congress Government should release a white paper on the entire issue. The PSPCL has lost money due to Rs 4,300 crore power scam, besides failure to strike out against corruption and even mismanagement in power purchases,” he added.

Maintaining that the recent hikes had made Punjab a most unfavorable destination for investment, Maluka said that simultaneously, the SC population, which was given partial free power by Parkash Singh Badal, had been worst hit with the Congress Government changing norms to virtually do away with this facility.