A contingent of Congress workers and farmers held a demonstration outside the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal here on Tuesday demanding a roll back of the power tariff hike at commercial rates imposed on farmers for running their tube-wells for irrigation purposes.
The protesters, who came in tractors and bullock carts, shouted slogans against the Kejriwal government for “betraying the trust and confidence of the farmers of Delhi”. Addressing the gathering, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken slammed the hike saying it had put a heavy burden on the people.
“Ever since the Kejriwal government came to power in Delhi, the Congress, as a responsible and constructive opposition, had taken up all the issues forcefully that affects the common people. Mr. Kejriwal has been visiting Punjab and telling lies to the people about his government’s ‘achievements’ in Delhi,” Mr. Maken said.
Adding that Congress workers and the farmers of Delhi would go Punjab to expose “the lies of Kejriwal”, Mr. Maken said that power rates for farmers in Delhi had been hiked “ten times to inflict a heavy blow”.
Mr. Maken also attempted to take the Aam Aadmi Party government and the NDPL to task for “arbitrarily” hiking the tariff and reducing the load capacity of tube-wells used by farmers for irrigation purposes to 10kv, from 20kv, for the purpose of availing subsidy, implemented during the Congress regime, as farmers would be charged at commercial rates for tube-well power consumption upward of 10kw now.
