The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday targeted the Punjab government for allegedly issuing inflated power bills with clauses of penalty at a time when the poor as well as the middle class were in dire financial straits due to situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Former minister and SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema, in a statement, said it was shocking and insensitive of the Congress government to issue power bills to all domestic as well as industrial consumers with deadlines and penalty clauses.
The government is committing cruelty on the common man by forcing him to cough up power bills immediately, he added.
The SAD demands a four-month moratorium on all power bills including halving of all bills when they are due for collection in a phased manner, he said.
The party also demands doing away with fixed charges for the industrial sector, Cheema added.
He said people were undergoing great hardship and urged Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to consider these demands sympathetically in the public interest.
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"Many are unable to even feed their families after being rendered jobless. There is no way they can pay inflated power bills received by them at this juncture," the SAD leader said.
The chief minister should direct the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to withdraw the bills immediately and issue them in a phased manner after four months after halving the bill amount, he said.
Cheema said shops and industries, which were closed when curfew was imposed in the state, should not be subjected to any charge.
He said industries should be exempted from fixed charges and power bills of those which had started operations should also be halved.
Cheema said there were reports that a large number of people had received inflated bills with many being charged as per their last consumption figures or on an estimate basis.
He said the PSPCL should withdraw all bills issued to the consumers and issue fresh bills after reducing them by 50 per cent once the economy was back on track.