AAP holds protest over 'costly' power in Punjab

The city police used water cannons on Friday to stop the Aam Aadmi Party workers protesting against the recent hike in power tariff in Punjab from moving towards the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's residence here. The main opposition party in Punjab was also seeking scrapping of power purchase agreements signed during the previous SAD-BJP regime with private plants.

The Aam Aadmi party, later in a statement here, claimed that more than two dozen party leaders and volunteers including MLA Aman Arora sustained injuries because of water cannon and two of them were admitted to the PGIMER. As part of their protest, they had planned to 'gherao' the official residence of the CM.

Heavy force was deployed by the Chandigarh Police to stop protesters from going towards CM residence. Barricading was done near MLAs hostel where AAP leaders and workers had assembled to proceed towards the CM house. When protesters tried to climb the barricades, police used water cannons to disperse them.

The massive protest was led by Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann. Party MLAs including Harpal Singh Cheema, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Manjit Singh Bilaspur, Baldev Singh, Meet Hayer, Baljinder Kaur and other state unit leaders also participated in it. Protesters demanded that either they were allowed to submit their memorandum to the Chief Minster or Amarinder Singh should come to the protest site to accept their charter of demands.

The police even stopped a group of party volunteers led by MLAs Harpal Cheema and Baljinder Kaur who were going towards the CM's house to paste their memorandum. Many AAP leaders including Mann, MLAs and volunteers later courted arrest and were taken in buses to police stations.

Power rates in Punjab were increased by 36 paise a unit with effect from January 1 for domestic consumers. The party leaders alleged that power consumers were being forced to pay between Rs 9 and Rs 12 a unit which was "much higher" as compared to electricity rates in other states.

Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann lashed out at the Congress led Punjab government, accusing it of failing to implement its poll promises of reviewing power purchase agreements and audit of state power utility in order to make power cheaper for consumers. He said as per PPAs signed, the state government had to pay Rs 2,800 crore annually as fixed charges to private plants even in case of no purchase of electricity.

Mann said once AAP forms government in Punjab in year 2022, it will scrap all PPAs pacts signed with private players. He said on the one hand, Punjab which produces own electricity, was selling electricity to consumers at “higher” rates and on the other hand, the Kejriwal-led government in Delhi, which produces not even a single unit of power, was providing “cheapest” electricity to the people there.

AAP leaders also claimed that there had been recurring hike in electricity rates allegedly because of the pressure of the private power companies.