New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will launch a ‘Bijli Andolan’ from Panchkula in protest against power cuts in Haryana today, news agency PTI reported. According to the report, Sushil Gupta, the party's Haryana unit president, said the campaign aims to force the Manohar Lal Khattar government to ensure free, round-the-clock electricity in Haryana, as done by AAP in Punjab and Delhi.
Talking to media, Gupta said that the people of Haryana are facing massive power outages and alleged that the Khattar-led government in Haryana is doing nothing to improve the situation. Drawing comparison with Delhi and Punjab, he further claimed that 87 per cent of domestic consumers in Punjab get free electricity, while Haryana's electricity consumption increased to 2.53 crore units per day in the last nine years.
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"But the Haryana government has been a complete failure in meeting this demand," PTI quoted Gupta as saying.
Haryana AAP chief further said that every segment in the state is bearing the brunt of long power outages. While majority of the industries are depending on generators to meet the electricity demand, several units are migrating to other states, Gupta said.
He further alleged that farmers are getting just two-three hours' supply a day during the paddy sowing season. Gupta was accompanied by AAP state campaign committee in-charge Ashok Tanwar.
Taking a dig at the Khattar government, he accused it of buying electricity at a higher rate to benefit a private-sector electricity producer.
Meanwhile, Anurag Dhanda, the AAP's senior vice-president in Haryana, claimed that the state government also increased the electricity procurement rate by nine per cent to Rs 3.20 a unit to benefit the private producer.