Bathinda– Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to tell where was the ten hour day time power supply which he proclaimed he was giving to the farmers of the State from his public stages.
Asserting that the chief minister was telling outright lies from stages, the SAD president said “the truth is that farmers are suffering from eight to ten hours of power cuts on a daily basis. The industry is also suffering from six to eight hours of power cuts which have disrupted their operations”.
Mr Sukhbir Badal was here to felicitate Zila Parishad Chairman Swaran Singh Poohli and Vice Chairperson Jaskaran Kaur Balluana, both of whom assumed office today.
Mr Badal asserted the chief minister would have to admit his failure to make adequate arrangements for purchasing power in advance instead of going in for knee jerk reactions like changing officers. “There is a shortfall of around 8, 000 to 9, 000 megawatt presently which the AAP government is unable to fill. This could have been possible if Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) had been done in advance as was done by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal”.
The SAD president also accused both the erstwhile Congress and the present AAP government with ruining the power sector in the State. “We made the State power surplus by establishing new thermal plants and creating bio-mass and solar power facilities. Both the Congress and the AAP government failed to build on this and have not added a single megawatt of power to the State kitty in the last ten years. This is why Punjab is suffering now”.
Urging people to support the SAD in the forthcoming assembly elections, Mr Badal said “I assure you, just like in 2007 when we took a series of steps to make Punjab power surplus, we will again add to the power generation capacity of the State once we are elected to power in 2027”.
Senior leader Sikandar Singh Maluka accompanied the SAD president.