Channi govt using PPAs cancellation threat to extract bribes from power plant owners: Majithia – EQ Mag Pro
Majithia said no PPAs had been canceled so far contrary to loud claims of the Congress government which had even put up posters to sell this white lie”.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Wednesday blasted Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi for “telling lies to the people of Punjab about the cancellation of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
Addressing a Press conference, Majithia said no PPAs had been canceled so far contrary to loud claims of the Congress government which had even put up posters to sell this white lie”.
“The Congress government, as well as the party’s high command, are merely blackmailing the power plant owners to coerce them into corrupt, under the table compromises. There are reports of Congress leaders enriching themselves with bribes running into hundreds of crores of rupees in exchange for non-cancellation of PPAs,” Majithia said.
He said the whole exercise of bringing the PPAs to the assembly was a massive fraud played on the people of Punjab as it was not the Assembly but the state government which had to take an executive decision to cancel the power projects. “But either their legs trembled while doing it because they knew that it would be wrong and untenable as power is on the concurrent list, or they think they can hoodwink the people with empty resolutions instead of passing an executive order to cancel the PPAs,” the SAD leader added.
Majithia challenged the CM to prove his allegation that the SAD government agreed to PPAs in which solar power would cost the state Rs 17 per unit. “I dare him to accept my challenge to resign and never contest again if one of us is found lying on the solar power tariff of Rs 17 per unit,” he said.
The SAD leader said it was condemnable that the chief minister was trying to fool Punjabis about the central renewable energy project which went by the name – JawaharLal Nehru National Solar Mission. He said the bare facts were as follows. “The Centre had earmarked the solar projects in Punjab as per its first come first served policy and it was the Central electricity commission which decided on the tariff of Rs 17.28 per unit out of which the central government bore the major cost of Rs 12.50 per unit.
Source: thestatesman
