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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
SANGRUR, July 19: Former Chief Minister and the leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal took strong exception to the proposed hike of 33 per cent in the power tariff for all sectors except agriculture. She said, ``The proposal is unfortunate as the people of the state are already overburdened with the sky-high prices of all the essential commodities.''
SANGRUR, July 19: Former Chief Minister and the leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal took strong exception to the proposed hike of 33 per cent in the power tariff for all sectors except agriculture. She said, ``The proposal is unfortunate as the people of the state are already overburdened with the sky-high prices of all the essential commodities.''
She was talking to ENS, after visiting the flood affected villages of Moonak sub-division falling under her -- Lehra -- Assembly segment.
The Punjab government, on Friday, granted approval to the proposal to hike the power tariff by 33 per cent to mobilise about Rs. 1,000 crore to tide over the financial crisis being faced by the Punjab State Electricity Board.The modalities would be worked out by the board at its meeting on Monday.
This would be the first major hike in power tariff after the Akali Dal - BJP government took over in the state.
She criticised the SAD-BJP alliance and said that instead of checking pilferage of the electricity, the common man in the state was being overburdened with the hike in the power tariff.
Bhattal said that public was already sore over the recent enhancement of the bus fare, the hike in the power tariff would add to their miseries. She said the ``hikes'' would only benefit Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his relatives.
Bhattal said that during her tenure as CM she had waived the power tariff for small farmers only but Badal waived it for all the farmers just to benefit a big farmer like him and his relatives, bringing gross deficit to PSEB.
She alleged that big private transport companies were also run by his henchmen and the hike in fares would benefit them. She said that by separating Udham Singh Nagar from UP and by amalgamating it with the Uttranchal was a big ``betrayal'' of the people living there in general and Sikhs in particular.
She condemned that the SAD leadership for keeping mum over the long pending demands of Punjab, for which according to her, they had launched several morchas which were responsible for the birth of terrorism in the state. She described the Akali leadership as ``exposed lot'', who according to her, were never sincere towards the demands of the state. She said they had pushed Punjab on the brink of disaster just to attain power.
Bhattal said if the Akalis were sincere towards the state then they should withdraw support from the BJP led government at the Centre without any delay.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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