AAP to gherao CM residence over increase in power tariff

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 4

Leader of the Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema on Saturday announced to gherao Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s residence in Chandigarh on January 7 over the increase in power tariff.

The AAP leader said this during a public meeting in the district’s Gill Patti village and later at a press conference at Teachers’ Home here.

“In the past three years, the Capt Amarinder government has hit power consumers hard by raising the tariff several times. It has even failed to fulfil the promise of providing the industry with electricity at Rs5 per unit,” Cheema said.

“The government’s wrong polices have forced about 64,000 industrial units to shift to other states. No new industry is setting up base here as power tariff is high and corruption is rampant.”

The Leader of the Opposition accused Capt Amarinder of being hand in glove with SAD and that was the reason the government was not cancelling power agreements with private companies signed during the SAD-BJP rule.

Hitting out at Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Cheema said Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant in Bathinda was inaugurated on the 500th Parkash Utsav of Guru Nanak and shut down at a time when the world was celebrating Guru’s 550th birth anniversary. “It is sad that the thermal plant was closed after spending Rs7.5 crore on it,” he said.