Jakhar questions govt’s silence on power cuts
Tuesday, 13/05/2014
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CHANDIGARH: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sunil Jakhar o n Monday questioned the ‘silence’ being observed by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal over drastic power cuts and apprehensions about revision in power tariff.
“The state gover nment has visibly gone in coma. Even after 12 days of polling, the gover nment is being run by the bureaucracy, that had been totally apathetic over public grievances,” Jakhar said.
He added that the BJP had suffered embarrassment on the issue in 2009-10. He claimed that people correctly believed that the SAD-BJP was equally responsible for burdening the people with enhanced and undesirable taxes. He said the Punjab CM, at a meeting with the BJP high command on January 6, 2010, in New Delhi, had agreed to restore the earlier power tariff but the decision was not implemented.
“Now, BJP leaders are trying to befool the people by proposing the formation of a coordination committee to check the public outrage over enhanced taxes etc. on the day of polling across the state,” Jakhar said.
The CLP leader said the deputy CM had been making tall claims over surplus power generation, but reports received from across Punjab indicated that the state was reeling under a power crisis for the past couple of days.
“The crisis had affected small-scale industries. Work in cotton ginning and pressing factories has come to a grinding halt due to irrational policies,” Jakhar said, urging the CM and the deputy CM to break their silence and bring the power generation sector on a sound footing without enhancing the tariff.
