Under attack from all sides over the costly electricity in the State besides the demand of annulling the “anti-government” power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private players, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday announced that the State Government would “renegotiate” the power agreements which the erstwhile Akali-BJP Government had signed to “defraud the State and its people”.
The Chief Minister also warned the private players against messing with Punjab’s finances. Given the shortfall in production by the State-owned power plants at Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar, the Chief Minister said that the State Government would work around the existing arrangements with the private players to make the power rates more affordable while ensuring that the peak demand of 13,000 mega watt is effectively met.
Notably, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has all along been targeting the State Government for not fulfilling its election promise of scrapping or reviewing the PPAs with private thermal power plants.
In fact, AAP’s Sunam MLA Aman Arora has even written to the Congress national president Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention in the matter by directing the Chief Minister to fulfill the election promise and scrap the agreements.
Not even the Opposition, the demand to cancel the PPAs in the interest of the state and its people was also raised by the Congress leaders including the Cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, along with other legislators and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa corning their own Government over the issue.
The Chief Minister, addressing the newly elected Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) office bearers, said that the state's financial position was on its way to consolidation as a result of the State Government’s efforts of the last three years and any attempt to scuttle the momentum would not be tolerated.
Exhorting the young PYC members and office bearers to play a proactive role in safeguarding the nation’s cherished ideals of secularism and pluralism, Capt Amarinder described the positivity and energy exhibited by the youth against the nefarious divisive designs of the BJP was reassuring.
Capt Amarinder asked the youth wing to support various initiatives in a mission mode to ensure that their benefits percolate down to the masses, and to thwart the Opposition’s negative propaganda against the government.
The Chief Minister hoped that the exuberance shown by young leaders would further enhance penetration of the State Government’s various path-breaking pro-people policies at the grassroots. He also assured them of his proactive support at all levels for any work in the interest of the State and its youth.