Chandigarh: The Leader of Opposition in the Punjab assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema of the Aam Aadmi party, criticised the proposed move of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to increase the electricity tariff in the state.The electricity regulatory commission has proposed to enhance electricity tariff by 3% in different categories. Cheema advised the Punjab chief minister, Captain Amrinder Singh to follow the Delhi model where electricity is provided at low rates.
Cheema demanded that the Punjab government, instead of increasing the electricity tariff should replicate the Delhi model to provide relief to people of the state. Reacting to the proposed rate revision by 3 per cent by the PSERC, he threatened that if the Punjab government did not desist from increasing the electricity tariff, the AAP would launch a statewide protest.
Cheema said that Punjab had entered the league of those states where electricity rate per unit was on the higher side, adding that the Kejriwal government in Delhi had been providing electricity at the cheapest rates across the country in the last four years.
Cheema questioned if the Kejriwal government could do it in four years, why couldn’t the Captain’s government replicate the model in Punjab? He said that electricity was cheap in Delhi despite the fact that national capital purchases electricity from private power players there while Punjab generated electricity on its own.
He added that if the Punjab government was interested in welfare of people, it should immediately provide cheaper electricity by scrapping the contracts signed between the private companies by the previous Badal government.