Condemning the Congress-led Punjab Government for issuing inflated power bills with clauses of penalty at a time when the poor as well as the middle class were in dire financial straits due to Covid-19, SAD on Wednesday asked the State Government to announce four-month moratorium on the payment of power bills.
Besides, the Akali Dal demanded that the government should exempt the industrial sector from the fixed charges, while halving the power bills of its consumers for this period.
“It is shocking and most insensitive of the Congress Government to issue power bills to all domestic as well as industrial consumers with deadlines and penalty clauses,” said former minister Daljit Singh Cheema while demanding a four-month moratorium on all power bills including halving of all bills when they are due for collection in a phased manner.
Asking the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to consider these demands sympathetically in public interest, Cheema said that people were undergoing great hardship. “The Chief Minister should direct PSPCL to withdraw the bills immediately and issue them in a phased manner after four months after halving the bill amount,” he said.
Cheema said that all industry and shops, which had closed shop when curfew was imposed in the State, should not be subjected to any charge. “Industry should be exempted from fixed charges and power bills of those industries which had started operations should also be halved,” he added.