Before his entry into politics, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal had in 2012 led a protest against the then Delhi government on power tariff hike and asked people not to pay inflated electricity bills. The AAP appears to be following the same strategy in Punjab ahead of Lok Sabha polls with the party’s state unit president Bhagwant Mann launching a ‘Bijli Andolan’ on 8 February to demand cut in electricity fares in state. Under it, party workers are visiting state’s villages and collecting the “excessive electricity bills sent by electricity department to poor people and will also compare the fares with Delhi to inform the people how the state government is unnecessarily burdening people with various taxes”. Mann has set up electricity committees at village level to listen to the grievances of people and then raise the issue with the electricity department officers. He alleged that on the pattern of Badals, the present Congress government led by Amarinder Singh is also working hand in glove with the electricity companies to loot the people of the state.

Mann said that the electricity fares in Delhi are cheapest in the country. The consumers have to pay Rs 1 per unit up to 200 units and from 200 units to 400 units the electricity departments charges just Rs 2.50 per unit. In Punjab the consumers pay Rs 6 up to 100 units and Rs 8.50 up to 300 units.

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He said the important fact is that Delhi does not produce electricity on its own but buys it from other states and provides cheap electricity to the residents of Delhi while Punjab has many sources of electricity production and boasts of being an electricity surplus state yet the electricity fares are highest among the states in country. The Member of Parliament from Sangrur, Mann said his party’s ‘Bijli andolan’ had received an overwhelming response from one and all as the high power tariff had affected not only the poor but other sections of society. He said people were paying hefty power bills and AAP had ignited a ray of hope for those who were bearing the brunt of these bills. By 20 February, AAP claimed the ‘Bijli Adolan’ had reached out to as many as 4,000 villages and listened to the grievances of the people. The areas where volunteers and experts listened to the villagers’ grievances, included Sahnewal, Sardulgarh, Dharamkot, Bhocho, Khaddor Sahib, Amritsar, Majitha, Khemkaran and Nawanshahr.

The party said the Congress government and local administration seemed to wake up from a deep slumber after ‘Bijli Andolan’ got a good response. In response to AAP’s ‘Bijli hearings’, the electricity department has started meeting the people suffering from hefty electricity bills. Speaking on the ‘Bijli Andolan’, state core committee chairman and AAP’s member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Budhlada, Budhram said AAP MLAs raised the issue in the Budget session of Assembly with full strength.

He said the government has decided that only units consumed after 200 will be charged from the families that are availing the facility of free power up to 200 units rather than the whole consumption. He said multiple cases of department providing relief to consumers are being reported from Sangrur, Mansa, Budhlada, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Fatehgarh Sahib, Khadoor Sahib also. Budhram said in coming days the AAP leaders and volunteers will start meeting the electricity department officers along with the affected people and demand relief. Budhram said that volunteers will gherao the electricity offices in case the department fails to deliver justice.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said pacts on power signed between the erstwhile SAD-BJP government and private companies should be scrapped as they are the main reason behind high power tariffs in the state. Cheema reiterated that CM Amarinder Singh had given his word to the people to scrap the anti-state and anti-people pacts with these companies once his party was voted to power. However, instead of nailing the Badals for the long-term agreements, he started following in their footsteps.

AAP MLA Aman Arora said the state had to pay them a whopping sum of Rs 2800 crore to private companies even if they did not produce a single unit of power under the said agreement. He added that if the agreements were not scrapped, the state will have to shell out Rs 70,000 crore in the next 25 years.

Arora said a random estimate that had been prepared by an expert committee, had said the state had to pay Rs 62,500 crore more in the next 25 years. He said the state power minister has admitted to have paid Rs 446 crore in the last 10 years without any power being produced by these companies under the scanner. Arora said that on the one hand, the government was not ready to pay salaries to the striking teachers amounting to Rs 300 crore.

As the AAP’s presence was missing at the ground level since the Assembly polls, this agitation on an important public issue has given the party much-needed fillip ahead of Lok Sabha Polls.