Members of the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal SAD on Thursday stormed the Well of the Punjab Assembly after the House Speaker refused to accept their calling attention notice on high power tariff in the state.
Soon after the Question Hour during the Budget session ended, members of the SAD sought from the Speaker about the status of their calling attention notice.
When the Speaker did not allow the same, all the members of the SAD and the BJP rushed to the Well of the House and raised slogans against the state government.
Earlier before the start of the session, the Akalis held a protest outside the Assembly over the issue.
Leading the protest, senior Akali leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia accused the Congress government of putting additional burden on power consumers.
"Power is costliest in Punjab at this moment," claimed Majithia and added the power rate was much cheaper during the previous SAD-BJP government than what was now under the Congress-led regime.
The opposition party also brought some families, who had received "steep power bills", to the protest site.
"The Congress had promised to provide electricity at Rs 5 per unit. But now, people are being charged Rs 9-10 per unit which was exorbitant, " said Akali leader Parambans Singh Romana.
Power rates in Punjab were hiked by 36 paise a unit from January 1 for domestic consumers.
The Akalis also accused the Congress of "striking underhand deals" with the management of private thermal plants which resulted in a loss of Rs 4,100 crore to the state exchequer.
They said people were receiving inflated bills and demanded an immediate rollback of the power tariff hike as well as an independent inquiry into the "Rs 4,100 crore power scam".
Legislative party leader Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Majithia said the Congress government should immediately reverse the power hike and provide power to domestic and industrial consumers at Rs 5 per unit as promised in the party's election manifesto.
The leaders said the chief minister's announcement of bringing out a white paper on the issue was an excuse to divert attention from the real problem.
"People are not interested in white papers. They want power at Rs 5 per unit. You should provide the same at the earliest," said Majithia.
He said the underprivileged sections of society, including the scheduled caste and backward communities, were the most burdened by the repeated power hikes along with the common man.
He said during the SAD-BJP tenure both SC and BC communities were provided 200 units of electricity free of cost.
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