The political war of words over power subsidy continued between the ruling AAP and the BJP in the national Capital.
Delhi Power Minister Atishi on Thursday alleged that her department has been forced by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to prepare a proposal to stop free electricity to farmers and lawyers' chambers.
No immediate reaction was available from the LG office over the minister's allegation. Responding to her allegations, the Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has claimed that no such order has been issued by the Lieutenant Govenor.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva has also said that Atishi's claim that the Lt. Governor has got a proposal made by the authorities to stop free electricity for farmers and lawyers is completely false.
He further alleged that Delhi Power Minister Atishi herself forced her electricity department officials to make a proposal and then started bad propaganda.
Earlier, Atishi said at a press conference that a file from the Power department was received by her earlier in the day which proposed to stop free electricity for farmers and the chambers of lawyers in Delhi.
"Power department officials said there is a lot of pressure from LG and BJP leaders to stop free electricity provided by the Delhi government," Atishi claimed, and wondered how could such a proposal come without approval of the Chief Minister or the minister concerned.
"This proposal has been prepared under pressure from the LG. I want to say to him that you hate AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, but I request you not to hate us so much that you also come to hate even people of Delhi including farmers and lawyers," she said. "Free electricity scheme will not be stopped till Kejriwal is there," the minister stressed.
She added that Delhi LG must remember that the people of Delhi also vote for BJP, and his dirty politics to disrupt the free power supply in Delhi will impact his party too. This would be an injustice to the people of Delhi.
Reacting to Delhi Power Minister’s claim, Delhi BJP said that the truth is that the Delhi government does not give even a single unit of free electricity to the farmers, infact collects a load charge of 10 to 20 KW per tubewell from the poor farmers. Today the condition of the farmer is that whether he uses electricity or not, he has to pay a bill of about Rs.1800 per month.
The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has claimed that that no electricity of any kind is being provided free of cost to the farmers of Delhi by the Kejriwal government.
