Congress workers and farmers of Delhi would go to Punjab to expose the lies of Kejriwal : Ajay Maken.

Congress workers and farmers, who came in tractors and bullock carts, under the leadership of DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, hold demonstration outside the residence of Kejriwal demanding roll back of the power tariff hike at commercial rates imposed  on farmers for running  tube-wells  for irrigation purposes.

·             Kejriwal, who promised to give free water and power at reduced tariff to the people of Delhi, hikes the power rates of farmers by ten times—Ajay Maken.

NEW DELHI, Thousands of Congress workers and farmers from Delhi, under the leadership of DPCC president Shri Ajay Maken, today held a massive protest demonstration outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal at Civil Lines, demanding roll back of the power tariff hike at commercial rates imposed on farmers for running their tube-wells for irrigation purposes.

The Congress workers and farmers, who came in tractors and bullock carts, holding flags and play cards, shouted slogans against the Kejriwal Government for betraying the trust and confidence of the farmers of Delhi. Slogans such as “Kejriwal ki manmani, menga hua khet ka paani” “roti, roji de na sake sarkar, woh sarkar nikamme hai, woh sarkar badalni hai”; “Kissan Virodhi Kejriwal hai, hai” etc.

Addressing the large gathering, who braved humidity and heat to march towards the residence of Kejriwal, Shri Ajay Maken slammed the hike in the power tariff at commercial rates for running tubes-wells by farmers for agricultural purposes as it has put a heavy burden on the people. Shri Maken said ever since the Kejriwal Government came to power in Delhi, the Congress party, as a responsible and constructive opposition, had taken up all the issues forcefully that affects the common people. He said Kejriwal has been visiting Punjab and telling lies to the people of Punjab about  his Government’s “achievements” in Delhi.

Shri Maken said the Congress workers and farmers of Delhi would go Punjab to expose the lies of Kejriwal as he has been misleading the people of Punjab, particularly farmers, with his outright lies as the truth was that under the Kejriwal Government, all development works in Delhi have come to a total standstill. He said  the power rates for farmers in Delhi has been hiked by ten times to inflict a heavy blow on the farmers.

Shri Maken took to task the  Aam Aadmi Party Government and the NDPL for arbitrarily hiking the power tariffs at commercial rates 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. He said those farmers, who were having power loads of 6 to 8 kw, and who were getting bills for Rs 1000 to Rs 2000, were now being forced to shell out huge sums to the tune of Rs 40,000 and above as their power loads have been arbitrarily revised to 10kw and above, to bring them above the subsidy category, so that they could be charged at commercial rates.

It may recalled that Kejriwal, who had announced  compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre to the farmers who  suffered crop damage due to hailstorm last year, was yet to fulfil his promise as most of the farmers were still waiting for the promised compensation, and some got compensation of only Rs 2000, Rs 3000 and Rs 1500. He said though the Kejriwal Government has been in power for over one and a half years, he was yet to fulfil the promises made to the people.

Besides Shri Ajay Maken, prominent others who participated in the demonstration were ex-MPs Shri Sajjan Kumar, Shri Ramesh Kumar and Shri Mahabal Mishra, Shri Omdutt Yadav,  Jaswant Rana and Praveen Bhugra from Narela, ex-MLAs Surender Kumar, Bhisham Sharma and Hari Shankar Gupta,  Shri Chattar Singh, Dr Narendra Nath, Anil Choudhary, Bhram Yadav, Mahmood Zia, Varyam Kaur, Mukesh Goel, Sharmistha Mukherjee, Dineshwar Tyagi (Delhi Seva Dal chief), Dr Naresh Kumar,  Jagjivan Sharma,  Amrish Gautam, Kunwar Karan Singh, Tarwinder Marwah, Pradeep  Sharma, Harikishan Jindal, Madan Khorwal and ex-MLA Dr Bijender Singh and Virender Kasana.

According to an order of the  NDPL, dated 20^th July, 2016 to the consumers regarding the “change of rate category from Agriculture to NDLT (Non Domestic Low Tension)”, the farmers were no longer “eligible to be considered under agriculture rate category”. This arbitrary revision in the load capacity of tube-wells without the knowledge of farmers and thereby bringing them under the ambit of commercial category, has inflicted a very heavy financial burden on the farmers who use tube-wells for irrigating their agricultural fields.

Shri Maken said when the Congress was in power in Delhi, it had taken a “considerate view” on the difficulty being faced by the consumers and enhanced the MDI limit for all agricultural consumers to 20kw through an order on October 15, 2009.

Shri Maken said Kejriwal, who had made tall promises to the people before the Assembly elections, including free water and power at cheap rates, were now drilling holes into the pockets of the citizens. It may be recalled that Shri Ajay Maken had rushed to assess the crop damage suffered by farmers due to hailstorms in March last year while Kejriwal visited the farmers only when the crops were harvested, thus failing to make a proper assessment of the damages suffered by the farmers.