Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday said that after running away from waiving off farmer loans and giving jobs to youth, the Congress-led Punjab Government was now even running away from its commitment to supply power to the State industry at Rs 5 per unit.
“This latest betrayal is exposed when the Congress Government refused to include this commitment in the consent letter submitted to the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Authority (PSERC),” said the former Minister and SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema.
“This means industrialists will not be supplied power at Rs five per unit but will continue to pay the present Rs 7.5 per unit or even more as per the decision of the electricity regulatory authority in its new tariff order,” he said.
Asking the Congress Government how it could go back on its announcements, Cheema said that Chief Minister Capt Amarinder had made an announcement to this effect in the Vidhan Sabha in June this year.
“Following this, the industrial sector even welcomed the decision. Now, we have come to know that this decision will not be implemented this year as the same has not been communicated to the PSERC,” he added.
Cheema said the Congress Government was again indulging in skulduggery by claiming that it would take up the issue of power at Rs five per unit for industry in the new industrial policy.
Terming Congress Government’s behaviour “shameful”, Cheema said that the Government is asking the industry to hire more youth and even signing MoUs with them besides encouraging them to attend so-called Rozgar Melas held under its aegis. “But on the other hand, the Government is not ready to make the industrial sector profitable by extending the promised facility to it,” he added.