NEW DELHI: Reactions poured in after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's announcement that people consuming up to 200 units of electricity won't have to pay power bills. While general people welcome the step, the opposition BJP and Congress said that it was nothing but a "poll stunt". "This will help to keep our electric bill down and for working people like me, it is a very welcoming step. In winter the cost will become zero and help us to save," said Neerja Ahuja, who works for an advertising firm. On the other hand, auto driver Ravinder Singh said that for poor people who use lesser electronics for them this step will work as a life changer. "Every month I spend more than Rs 500 for electric charge and now it will be free.
It will help me to save money which I can save for my children," he said.
However, the opposition parties slammed the AAP for such a decision. Responding to the announcement, BJP MP and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari claimed that Kejriwal took the decision after tremendous efforts made by BJP and other NGOs over the increased prices of electricity. "This is not the decision of Arvind Kejriwal. It is the result of the constant fight put up by BJP. Since the day they have increased the fixed charge, BJP has been struggling. This is the fight put by us, NGOs and other forces and we have won," Tiwari said.
Adding that the freebies are being announced ahead of the elections, he questioned Arvind Kejriwal over the whereabouts of the crores of money that the AAP government took from Delhi people over the past 55 months with increased rates. "We can only make up two things with his announcement. It is a way to fool the citizens ahead of the elections like the way he did before the 2015 elections. Now elections are again here. So they are trying to lure the citizens. But the increased rates that you took in the past 55 months, almost Rs 7,000 crore you have looted from the people of Delhi, when will you return that," the BJP leader added.
Similarly, the Delhi Congress said that AAP Government should give free power to the people of Delhi for at least one year for fleecing them for the past one and a half years in the name of fixed charges and pension fund.