Congress promises to give free power up to 600 units

New Delhi: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Subhash Chopra on Thursday said that the party in its manifesto for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections will announce free power of up to 600 units as a 'relief package' to the consumers.

Addressing the media here, Chopra slammed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for giving benefit of over Rs 10,000 crore to private power companies and said, "Congress will give free power for running tube-wells for farming." He also said that small shop keepers will be taken out of the ambit of commercial category to put them into house-hold consumption slab and they will also be given free power up to 200 units.

"Power consumers in Delhi will be given direct benefit of the amount saved from power thefts," he added. The Delhi party president said that power is now bought in Delhi at the rate of Rs 8.45 per unit while the Congress government paid only Rs 7.36 per unit.

Meanwhile, former Delhi Minister Haroon Yusuf addressing the same issue said that to give a subsidy of Rs 8532 crore to the private power companies was mired in big corruption.

"Kejriwal had promised to the power consumers that the subsidy amount will be directly deposited in their accounts. They asked what was the reason for the subsidy not being transferred directly into

the accounts of the consumers," he said.

Yusuf said that Aam Aadmi Party had promised before the Assembly elections that the accounts of the private power companies will be audited through the CAG, but no step had been taken to audit the accounts of the power companies in the last five years.

Party spokesperson Mukesh Sharma, meanwhile, asked the Kejriwal government, why no new Gas Turbine Power Generation plant has been set up. "During the Congress regime, a 1500 mega-watt Gas Turbine power plant was set up at Bawana for which even arrangements had been made to buy power from the UPA Government at the Centre," he said.

He said that three Gas Turbines were setup in Bawana, but after that not a single such plant was set up. "If this was not probed by the CBI, then the Congress party will approach the Lokayukta for a probe," added Sharma.

(Image from dnaindia.com)