Challenging the claims of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal of making Punjab a power surplus State, Congress on Monday said that the Sukhbir Badal should come clean on his hollow claims.
Rubbishing the claims of the Government on making Punjab power surplus State, Charanjit Singh Channi, Congress legislature party leader asked if Punjab had become a power surplus State then what was the cause of spending crores of rupees for power purchase every yearIJ
Quoting the information received under RTI by Jasdeepak Singh, convener, RTI cell PPCC, Channi said that the power purchased by Punjab State Power Corporation limited is increasing every year since 2011-12 onwards.
In the year 2011-12 it was Rs 5284.85 crores, which rose to Rs 7218.81 crores very next year, then Rs 8222.19 crores in 2013-14, Rs 10999.34 crores in 2014-15 and now just for four months (April to July15) in the year 2015 the purchase is of Rs 4966.41 crores.
Channi said that the power purchased from the Rajpura plant owned by l&T and the Talwandi Sabo owned by Sterlite for the four months in the 2015 amounts to Rs 2928.19 crores. PSPCl had been reeling under a debt of more than Rs 20,837 crores, and 75% of its debt is to be borne by the Punjab Government, which is already facing a situation akin to financial emergency in the State.
He said that the SAD-BJP Government has purchased power worth Rs 58,461.02 crores since they came into power from 2007 onwards till now.
Channi asked the Deputy Chief Minister to explain to the people of Punjab why this exorbitant amount of power is being purchased every year if the State is power surplus.
The Congress leader also questioned Sukhbir Singh Badal about the logic behind this huge purchase of power in the State while more than 21000 industrial units have either closed or migrated from Punjab till 2014. He asked, “Why this power is being purchased when the industry is shifting from Punjab. Why more than Rs 200 crores of power is being purchased from the private players for only four months period (April to July 2015). How many of these private players are directly or indirectly linked with the businesses of Badal FamilyIJ, asked Channi.
He also questioned the Deputy Chief Minister about the status of the Government owned thermal plants where they have not been able to allocate the coal blocks yet. Why the power is being purchased through private players who are running private plants in Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal Sahib while the Ropar, Bhatinda and lehra Mohabbat are kept closed intentionally.
Anticipating hike in power tariffs in coming months, Channi said that the power tariffs are expected to be hiked by 9% in 2016-17 and 2017-18 just because of poor policies of the ruling Government.
He said that Congress party would completely reject the increase in the power tariffs as the consumers are not in a position to bear more burdens on their pockets. He added that the Government should check the transmission and distribution losses and reduce them as possible to cover up for the losses of PSPCl.