Chandigarh, Jul 22 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday slammed the AAP government in Punjab, accusing it of mismanaging the power supply for the rural sector.
SAD alleged paddy transplantations were withering due to power outages.
In a statement issued here, SAD president said, “At a time when the canals are also virtually dry, the AAP government has failed to provide the mandatory eight hours of uninterrupted power supply to the rural sector despite the grandiose claims by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann that he had made ample arrangements for power supply for paddy transplantation.
“Farmers are barely getting four to five hours of power due to which many have been even forced to go in for re-transplantation after their newly transplanted paddy plants withered away.” Asserting that paddy yield would be affected due to the AAP government’s “failure” to provide adequate power supply for the crop, Badal alleged that despite widespread complaints and protests CM Mann was in a “denial mode” and was not even ready to accept the “crisis in the making”.
He claimed that besides the rural sector, even domestic power supply had been affected with all towns and cities facing power cuts of two to three hours on a daily basis.
Claiming that the government had “failed” to plan ahead, Badal said the sharp increase in power consumption during these months should have been taken into account and alternative arrangements should have been made.
He said that during the erstwhile SAD government, comprehensive arrangements used to be made to purchase power so that the paddy crop was not affected in any manner.
Badal alleged the AAP government was short-sighted and was following the footsteps of its predecessor by not going in for any power generation.
“Not a single unit of power has been added to the state kitty since the last seven-and-a-half years,” he said.
He said the erstwhile SAD government had facilitated the construction of the 1,980 MW Talwandi Sabo and 1,400 MW Rajpura thermal plant in “record time” to make the state power surplus.
“However, both the subsequent Congress and AAP regimes have not added a single unit of power to the state and this is the reason why farmers as well as the common man are suffering,” he said. PTI CHS MNK MNK
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