New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Subhash Chopra, slamming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, said that the AAP Government doled out over Rs 10,000 crore benefit to private power companies, adding that in the last five years, the Delhi Government, in the guise of giving up to 200 units free power to the consumers, has committed corruption on a big scale. Shri Chopra demanded that this scam should be probed by the CBI to bring the guilty to book.
Addressing a Press Conference at the DPCC office, Rajiv Bhawan here today, along with former Delhi Minister Shri Haroon Yusuf and chief spokesperson Shri Mukesh Sharma, Shri Subhash Chopra said that the Delhi Congress, in its manifesto for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, will announce free power up to 600 units as a “relief package” to the consumers.
Shri Subhash Chopra, shedding light on some of the points in the “relief package”, said that Congress will also give free power for running tube-wells for farming. Shri Chopra said that small shop keepers will be taken out of the ambit of commercial category to put them into house-hold consumption slab and they will also be given free power up to 200 units. Shri Chopra said that power consumers in Delhi will be given direct benefit of the amount saved from power thefts. Shri Chopra said that power is now bought in Delhi at the rate of Rs 8.45 per unit while the Congress Government paid only Rs 7.36 per unit.
Shri Subhash Chopra and Shri Haroon Yusuf said that to give subsidy of Rs 8532 crore to the private power companies was mired in big corruption. They said that Kejriwal had promised to the power consumers that the subsidy amount will be directly deposited in their accounts. They asked what was the reason for the subsidy not being transferred directly into the accounts of the consumers.
Shri Haroon Yusuf said that the Aam Aadmi Party had promised before the Assembly elections that the accounts of the private power companies will be audited through the CAG, but no step had been taken to audit the accounts of the power companies in the last five years. He said that the Punjab Government did not publicize the Rs 5000 crore subsidy given to the farmers, but the Kejriwal Government was trying to emotionally blackmail the consumers by giving just Rs 2300 crore subsidy, which the Congress party strongly condemns.
Shri Mukesh Sharma asked the Kejriwal Government why no new Gas Turbine Power Generation plant has been set up. He said that during the Congress regime, a 1500 mega-watt Gas Turbine power plant was set up at Bawana for which even arrangements had been made to buy power from the UPA Government at the Centre. He said that three Gas Turbines were setup in Bawana, but after that not a single such plant was set up. He said that after the Congress regime, Rs 2111 crore was saved on account of power theft prevention, but that money has gone into the ‘account of corruption’. He said that if this was not probed by the CBI, then the Congress party will approach the Lokayukta for a probe.
Shri Mukesh Sharma announced that Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Shri Subhash Chopra will release a “postmortem report” on Kejriwal Government’s report card, to expose the lies and falsehood of the Kejriwal Government, which made scores of promises, but fulfilled none.
