हिंदी
Why Captain Amarinder and Navjot Sidhu silent on issue of foreign coal to private thermal plants
Advocate General’s office turned into white elephant like private thermal plants, Atul Nanda should be sacked immediately: AAP
Chandigarh, August 9 2021
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Harpal Singh Cheema, said, “Until the fatal power deals are canceled by the state government, the private power companies will continue to plunder the treasury and the people of Punjab.” The AAP alleged the order to pay Rs 550 crore to a private thermal plant in the ‘foreign coal case’ was the result of incompetence of the government and unilateral power deals.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Monday, Harpal Singh Cheema said the previous Badal government had entered into deadly power deals with private power companies for a hefty brokerage; as a result, the people of Punjab had been burdened with trillions (over Rs 5,500 crore) and now another Rs 550 crore was being looted. He said the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and the Congress party came to power in Punjab with the promise of scrapping these power deals, but after four-and-a-half years; they did not cancel the deadly power accords, because like the Badals, the ruling Congressmen also partnered with the private power companies.
Cheema said due to this the practice of looting the treasury of Punjab and the common man by the power companies continues unabated. He further alleged the private power companies were constantly winning and Punjab was losing in the anti-Punjab terms of the power agreements and in the legal cases being deliberately weakly fought by the Advocate General’s Office. “The latest decision of the Central Tribunal is part of this genocidal chain,” he added. Disclosing this, Harpal Singh Cheema said the Central Tribunal had shocked the Punjab government and the people in the case of foreign coal, directing the Powercom to pay the owner of Talwandi Sabo Thermal Plant – the Vedanta Company, Rs 472 crore as additional value of foreign coal along with 80 crore, totaling Rs 550 crore. “This huge amount will go out of the pockets of every category of power consumers,” he added.
Cheema questioned the Chief Minister and the Punjab Congress president that a new burden of Rs 550 crore had been imposed on the people of Punjab but Captain Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu remained silent. Taking a dig at Navjot Sidhu, Harpal Singh Cheema said, “Sidhu, who used to play ‘Twitter-Twitter’ before getting the state presidency, has now forgotten to use Twitter or he just wanted to get the seat.”
The LoP demanded that the ruling Congress should immediately abandon the brokerage and cancel the deadly power deals and immediately dismiss Advocate General Atul Nanda who had set a new record in losing all cases against the Punjab government. Cheema assured the people of Punjab that if the ruling Congress, like the Badals, would also keep kneeling before the private companies, then with the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government in 2022, the deadly power deals would be canceled and the looting of Punjab and its power consumers will be stopped.
