Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Sunday assured the state’s farmers and poor, who have been served with severely inflated power bills, that the Akali Dal would launch an agitation to secure justice for them.
“It is shocking that the poorest of the poor have been burdened with bills in thousands,” said Sukhbir, while speaking at public gatherings in various villages falling under his Lok Sabha constituency, Ferozepur.
He said that the Congress Government had made a mockery of the partial free power facility extended to the under privileged by the previous SAD-BJP government. “The poor have been burdened with inflated bills which have been levied with retrospective effect,” he said while assuring the people that the SAD would force the government to take back the inflated bills.
Demanding an immediate rollback in the power tariff rates, Sukhbir said that the power rates had been increased repeatedly with the Congress government effecting a hike between 25 to 33 percent. “Such a steep increase, within a period of two years, is intolerable for the common man,” he said.
He also demanded uninterrupted power supply to the farmers during the paddy season saying that the power cuts were the order of the day.
Speaking about his priorities as Ferozepur MP, Sukhbir said that he would try to take maximum advantage of the central scheme offering pucca houses to poor sections of society. “I would soon come out with a programme to ensure that this could be implemented in phases across the constituency,” he said.
Also coming down heavily on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for disregarding development works, Sukhbir said that similarly, no incentive was being given to the farmers to build on their agriculture practise.
He urged the farmers to come up with projects in the dairy sector and also food processing, saying that he would try to get these projects started along with central subsidies.