CHANDIGARH: The move to transfer a profit-making electricity department having its assets worth thousands of crores to a rich corporate just for rupees 871 Crores while ignoring the interests of the people of Chandigarh is aimed at ensuring a windfall profit to the cronies of the BJP, said Congress Spokesperson Rajesh Sharma in a press statement today.
Chandigarh Electricity Department has been consistently earning good profits having earned Rs.116.60 Crores in Financial Year 2018-19, Rs. 155.42 Crores in 2019-20 and Rs. 365.11 Crores in 2020-21, even when its electricity tariff is the lowest in the country. At present Rs. 2.5 are being charged for first 150 units for the domestic consumers, Rs. 4.5 upto next 250 units and Rs. 5.20 beyond that. As per Bhakhra Beas Management Board Rules, Chandigarh Administration gets 3.5 % of the total power generation of Bhakhra Dam at a concessional rate of Rs. 0.17 per unit. This concession will be withdrawn once a private player takes over. Hence, the electricity tariffs in Chandigarh are likely to go up steeply with the private players handling power supplies, said Sharma.
The decision to literally sell a profit-making Chandigarh Electricity Department, which is one of the best in the country in controlling line losses and having best performance time of resolution of electricity distribution complaints of the end users/consumers, is undoubtedly against the public interest and it smacks of a high-level corruption, Sharma stated. There are reasonable apprehensions that such decision could be a big scam wherein a lot of money might have exchanged hands, that warrants a CBI enquiry into all aspects of the deal, said Sharma.
Modi Government that has been passing many bills and orders so as to appease the corporates ignoring the public interest. India witnessed the longest agitation in the history of India against Black Farm Laws in which farmers sat on the borders of Delhi for over a year and after over 750 farmers sacrificed their lives to awaken the insensitive Modi Government. Decisions of the Modi Government to sell/transfer profit-making public sector undertakings carved out of tax payers’ money is not only anti-people but also against national and public interests, Sharma said.
Chandigarh Congress demands that the decision to transfer the electricity distribution in Chandigarh to a private company along with all the assets of the Electricity Department must be revoked to safeguard public and national interests.