Opposition parties Congress and SAD on Saturday slammed the AAP government in Punjab over the free electricity issue, accusing it of cheating and betraying people in the name of free power.
The Shiromani Akali Dal said the notification issued by the PSPCL on free power to the electricity consumers has once again exposed another fraud of the Bhagwant Mann government with the Punjabis.
Opposition parties Congress and SAD on Saturday slammed the AAP government in Punjab over the free electricity issue, accusing it of cheating and betraying people in the name of free power.
The reaction came after the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) issued a notification on 300 units of free electricity per month.
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said a lot of conditions have been imposed in the latest notification on free power.
The state government has "virtually excluded most of the population" in Punjab, he claimed in a statement here.
"The conditions for getting the free power are such that not many households will be eligible for the 600 units of free power", he said, while referring to the conditions.
Giving example, he said, "no income tax payee, no family with a pensioner or a government employee will be eligible for free power."
"This is not what you had promised and repeatedly announced after forming the government", Warring told Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, saying, "it is blatant cheating with people of Punjab."
"So much so that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was repeatedly telling blunt lies in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh that people of Punjab were getting 600 units of free power and if the AAP formed a government in these states, people there would also get free power," he said.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said the notification issued by the PSPCL on free power to the electricity consumers has once again "exposed another fraud" of the Bhagwant Mann government with the Punjabis.
The party said that conditions laid down in the notification have made it clear that more than 80 per cent of the people will be deprived of the so-called scheme of the AAP government.
The Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema said though small and marginal section of the society might get benefit of the scheme but reality is that a good number of people were either having a member who is government employed, pensioner, doctor, engineer, chartered accountant or other professional who is not supposed to avail benefit of the scheme.