Cong vows to probe power pacts

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 1

Senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar said here today that Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s claims of reducing the power tariff were tailor-made to safeguard the interests of a handful of big industrial houses and investors.

He promised that the Congress, on coming to power in the state, would conduct a thorough inquiry into the power purchase agreements with private players and find out why power was purchased at exorbitant rates.

Jakhar also questioned the rationale behind ignoring the domestic consumers and small traders, who had been overburdened with hefty power tariffs.

He said the SAD-BJP government, in order to boast about being a ‘power surplus’ state, had been purchasing power from the private power plants at Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal Sahib, even as the government-run plants at Bathinda, Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar were virtually lying idle.

He also accused SAD leaders of patronising power theft in their constituencies. “On an average, there is 12.71 per cent power theft in the state, but in some areas, it is as high as 32 per cent (Majitha) and 35 per cent (Badal village). The immunity to the wrongdoers is being given by the respective Akali leaders,” Jakhar added.