DON’T PAY POWER BILLS TILL TARIFF CUT BY 50%: BJP TO DELHIITES
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi may have to taste its own medicine so far as hefty electricity bills are concerned. The BJP will be urging the consumers in the Capital against paying electricity bills if it is not reduced by 50 per cent as promised by the AAP Government. Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said, the BJP would appeal the people to stop paying bills just as the AAP had asked the public during the previous Congress government. Slashing the power tariff by 50 per cent was a major poll promise of AAP; however, on coming to power, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Government announced 50 per cent subsidy to those consuming up to 400 units of electricity per month.
Goel alleged that 50 per cent power subsidy to a limited section of society was a betrayal to Delhiites at large. He accused the AAP Government of fooling the people of Delhi and dismissing its steps like free water supply and power subsidy as a ‘hoax’. “The announcement of 50 per cent subsidy by AAP Government is eyewash. A majority of Delhi’s population will be deprived of the benefit as it was taken in haste without application of any logic. We will wait for two months and if the power bills are not reduced by half, we will ask public to stop paying bills,” Goel said. He was addressing a sit-in protest by Delhi BJP against AAP Government at Rajghat on Friday. He alleged that the AAP has been misleading public with a number of false promises and that the real face of the party was exposed after it entered into an alliance with the Congress, which it dubbed as the ‘most corrupt’.
“The power and water subsidy will not benefit more than 10 per cent of Delhi’s population. Despite announcing 50 per cent subsidy, the power bills of those consuming up to 200 units of electricity will be reduced only by 22 per cent while the power bills for 400 units will be slashed by 35 per cent. The government will realise this once people stop paying their bills,” he said.
The dharna at Rajghat aimed at exposing the ‘double-speak’ of the Kejriwal Government. The BJP leadership criticised the party for backtracking on the issue of corruption and accused it of shielding Congress leaders and its Ministers in the previous Government. Slamming the Aam Aadmi Party for its views on Kashmir and other national issues, senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said they intended to run a parallel Government that would force the country on the path of separatism. “Today they (AAP) want referendum on removal of Army from Kashmir. Tomorrow they would seek referendum on handing over Kashmir to Pakistan. The AAP leaders are speaking the language of separatists,” Naqvi alleged.
He also took a jibe at the helpline started against corruption saying this was another attempt of the Government to fire the gun from the common man’s shoulder.