Punjab President of AAP and MP, Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said that the Aam Aadmi Party would now ‘gherao’ Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s residence in Chandigarh on January 10, against what he called as "open loot of power in the state by the government-sponsored power mafia".
The party had earlier planned to ‘gherao’ CM’s residence on January 7, which had to be deferred owing to inclement weather.
In a statement issued here, Mann questioned Capt. Amarinder as to why common consumer in the state was forced to pay between ` 9 to Rs 12 for domestic power which, he claimed, was much higher compared to other states even as Punjab produced own electricity.
Mann said that on the one hand, Punjab producing own electricity was selling electricity to consumers at an expensive rate, compared to other states in the country, on the other, the Kejriwal-led government in Delhi, which produced not even a single unit of power on its own, was providing cheapest electricity to the people there.
Pointing finger at Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, the AAP MP questioned as to why he was maintain a stoic silence over the power agreements now when in power, while being the most vocal against them (PPOs) sitting in the opposition during the previous Badal
regime.
Mann said that both the SAD-BJP and the Congress governments were responsible for the expensive power in the state, saying that the Congress government was a bigger defaulter than the Badals, as it had failed to auditing POWERCOM’s previous years’ accounts and scrapping the PPPs, as promised to the people before assuming power in 2017.
He blamed Captain Amarinder Singh for becoming strange bedfellows in the open ‘loot’ of power by electricity mafia on the lines of the Badals.
Mann further said that the party would lay siege on Chief Minister’s official residence in Chandigarh on January 10, against the steep power hike in electricity charges to press the government for reducing power tariff.
AAP TO EXTEND SUPPORT TO NATIONWIDE STRIKE TODAY
Mann said that the party would extend its wholehearted support to the nation-wide strike call given by various farmer organisations and traders bodies across the country against the Modi government’s anti-farmers and anti-labour policies.
The Punjab AAP chief said the party was opposed to the union government’s anti-labor reforms, privatisation of government and semi-government organizations, promoting contractual employment and outsourcing, asserting that the stir call given by the trade and peasants’ unions was against the Modi government's stubborn stance towards the farming fraternity by not allowing remunerative price for their crop yield by implementing the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.