Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday rubbished the “lofty claim” by Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal that Punjab would be a power surplus State with the inauguration of Thermal Power Plant at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district.
“Sukhbir Badal, by virtue of his genetic habit of telling lies and boasting in public, has perpetuated another gimmick on power situation in Punjab,” said Bajwa, addressing workers’ meeting while launching third phase of his mass contact programme.
He said Talwandi Sabo Thermal plant would only be running at 30 per cent of its total capacity of 1.900 megawatt, and in winters, the power consumption in the state reduced to almost half the demand in rest of the year.
“People of Punjab must get ready for another hike in the power tariff as the electricity produced by Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura thermal plants would be 25 per cent costly than other thermal plants and 50 per cent higher than power generated by hydro projects,” he said.
Bajwa added while Ropar and Bathinda thermal plants were public sector projects, Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura thermal plants are fully owned by private companies and Punjab Government has not imposed any ceiling on power tariff to be charged by them.
“Shortage of coal for thermal plants is another bottleneck which the SAD-BJP Government has failed to anticipate,” he added.
The State Congress chief asked Sukhbir about the fate of his earlier announcements of express highway between Mohali and Amritsar, Metro in ludhiana and Mohali.
Bajwa, maintaining that SAD leadership was fully exposed on the issue of drug menace in Punjab, feared that the party while contesting assembly elections in Delhi would spread the roots of drug menace to Delhi and other States too.
“Two convicts in criminal cases, an under trial in corruption case and a MP allegedly having links with a drug cartel are among SAD star campaigners in Delhi,” he added.
The PPCC president also asked the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to wind up his Sangat Darshan programme “which is a farce and mischievous political stunt.”