AAP workers protest outside the residence of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh
Chandigarh:
Hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party workers, led by the Punjab unit chief, faced water cannons outside Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence during the scorching heat to protest against the power crisis in the state.
Punjab AAP chief Bhagwant Mann and his party workers gathered outside Amarinder Singh’s house in Mohali this afternoon and started raising slogans. Later they started marching towards the Chief Minister’s residence. This prompted the police to use water cannons on the protesters.
The Punjab government is being criticized for the acute power shortage amid the scorching heat. The state has already ordered reduction of working hours in government offices and requested the department to reduce the use of high power consuming appliances like air conditioners.
Power demand in the state massively exceeded 14,000 megawatts (MW) in a single day. Power shortage has become a major election issue with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party even promising 300 units of free electricity to every household if the party wins elections early next year.
After coming to power in Delhi, AAP had implemented free electricity scheme up to a few hundred units.
Another opposition party Shiromani Akali Dal also protested against the power crisis on Friday. It accused the Amarinder Singh government of stopping eight hours of free electricity for farmers, unscheduled power cuts in urban areas and ordering the closure of industries twice a week.
The power crisis has worsened due to heat wave. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today said that however, the heat wave passing through the north Indian plains and hills has subsided and no such conditions are likely to occur during the next five days.
The Meteorological Department said that the temperature is likely to drop by 3-4 degrees Celsius in the next five days. It had issued a heat wave alert for July 1-2.
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