New Delhi : The ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi believes in rewarding anarchy: It has announced a mega reward for power bill defaulters. Those who did not pay for electricity between October 2012 and April 2013 and adhered to a party diktat will cough up only half of what they were billed.
The AAP government, in turn, will fork up Rs six crores to fund the massive discount. The announcement was made by senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who said that Delhi residents, who supported the party’s campaign against allegedly inflated power bills, would be given 50% subsidy and would be charged no penalty. Sisodia added that households which did pay their bills during this period will not be refunded. In October 2012, AAP had urged residents of Delhi to state in writing that they would not pay their water and power bills to protest against over-priced utilities.
Ten lakh people had signed the petition; 24,000 defaulted on their bills.
The Delhi government has thus fulfilled another of its assembly poll promises. In reaction, the Congress accused the government of misleading people while the main opposition — the Bharatiya Janata Party — called it an “election stunt”.
The AAP government has also decided to consider closure of power theft cases filed against some con-sumers during the Congress regime, which the AAP had accused of being hand-in-glove with power discoms.
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