Chandigarh, August 28
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has termed the process of cancellation of fatal and costly power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private power companies by the state government as a belated and a decisive step; declaring it an initial win of the party’s electricity movement and people’s unity.
In a joint statement issued from the party headquarters here on Saturday, senior AAP leaders and MLAs Aman Arora and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said, “Bowing to the pressure of the people, the Captain government has finally accepted that the power deals made by the Badals with the private power companies were totally wrong, one-sided and fatal; which are now in the process of being canceled. It would have been better if the ruling Congress had taken this step as soon as the government was formed in 2017 as per its election promise and canceled the agreements. Now, the Captain government has less than six months left. It is difficult to trust the steps of the Congressmen until the process has begun. The confidence of the people will be restored when the agreements are scrapped and every section starts getting cheap electricity.”
Aman Arora said when politicians like Captain Amarinder Singh could renege on written election promises and oath of Sri Gutka Sahib; the Aam Aadmi Party could not trust such opportunistic political leaders as long as the exchequer and the people of Punjab do not get rid of the expensive power mafia. He said if the government had canceled the agreements four years ago, the state and the people would not have been robbed of crores of rupees.
Aman Arora further questioned who would account for the thousands of crores of rupees looted from the state exchequer and the pockets of the people by the private power mafia from the Badal rule till the four-and-a-half-years of Congress rule. “Will Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu clarify this?” he said.
Meet Hayer also raised a question as to why the process of canceling the agreements has been carried out secretly; while this work should have been done through the Punjab Assembly. Hayer asked the AAP volunteers and the office bearers to continue the awareness campaign against the government and private power mafia under the electricity movement till cheap and uninterrupted power supply would be available.
Hayer assured that if the Captain government still showed any negligence in the process of canceling the power deals, the people would quell the Congress. He assured that if the Congress failed to complete the process of canceling the agreements, the power deals would be canceled within the first month of the formation of the AAP government and the private power mafia would be cracked down on in the same way as the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.
