Criticizing the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (PSERC) proposed move to jack up electricity rates in the state, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said that the Capt Amarinder Singh government should take a cue from Delhi model so that the people could heave a sigh of relief from the scare of high electricity rates in the state.
Reacting to the proposed rate revision by three percent, AAP’s senior leader and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema threatened to mount a state-wide protest on the roads as also raise the issue on the floor of the House if the Captain Government did not desist from raising the electricity rate.
Cheema demanded that the Punjab Government, instead of jacking up electricity rate more than once a year, should replicate the Delhi model sooner than later to bring cheer on the faces of people.
Punjab had entered the league of those states where electricity rate per unit was on the higher side, he said adding that Kejriwal government had been providing electricity at the cheapest rate across the country in a short span of just four years.
Cheema said that if the Kejriwal government could do it in four years, why couldn’t Captain Government replicate the model in Punjab? “This is notwithstanding the fact that it bought electricity from private power players in Delhi, while Punjab generated electricity on its own,” he said.
He said that if the government was interested to do a precious little for the people, it should immediately provide cheaper electricity to the people in the State by scrapping the contracts signed between the private companies and the erstwhile Badal government.