AAP challenges Congress to show single state where power tariffs lower than Delhi

Hitting back at the Congress for its allegation that the Delhi government benefited power discoms at the cost of consumers, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenged the party on Sunday to show a single state governed by it where power tariffs are lower than that of the national capital.

The Congress had on Saturday alleged that the AAP government coaxed people living in rented accommodations to install separate power meters, following which the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission increased fixed charges benefitting the discoms.

At a press conference, the Congress party's Delhi unit president Sheila Dikshit alleged the Arvind Kejriwal government "enacted a drama of installing lakhs of meters to benefit the power companies".

"Electricity bills used to be nominal before. In the name of fixed charges, the government collected crores of rupees and gave it to power discoms," she alleged.

Hitting back, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said the Congress has made a wild allegation against the Aam Aadmi Party government over electricity pricing in the city.

"It is worth noting that these allegations are coming from a party and an individual whose government hiked power tariffs every single year for fifteen years, against AAP which has successfully prevented tariff hikes for the last 4.5 years, thereby providing the cheapest electricity in the entire country," he said in a statement.

Bhardwaj further said that not only has Delhi been protected from successive tariff hikes, the Arvind Kejriwal government has also provided a subsidy for the small household consumer that makes it comfortable for Delhi residents to live a dignified life with basic utilities.

"The Congress still has governments in some states. We challenge the Congress to show a single state it has governed where power tariffs and bills are lower than that of Delhi and until then it should refrain from making these silly allegations," he said.