Power hungry? Neta, Novjot Singh Sidhu, does not pay ?power bills?

New Delhi: Even by Congress standards it was quite an ironic episode. A noted cricket star-turned-neta Navjot Singh Sidhu has been found in the erring list of not paying the electricity bills worth Rs 8.74 lakh.

But he did have time to share his words of wisdom. “Punjab Model for Power – Money spent on giving unreasonable and exuberant profits to Private Thermal Plants should be utilised for welfare of People i.e Giving Power Subsidy for Free Power for Domestic use (Upto 300 Units), 24 hours supply and to invest in Education and Healthcare,” he wrote in a series of tweets on July 2.

All these have happened when Sidhu is busy now for weeks fighting his senior party colleague and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh so that he can get ‘power’ for himself and perhaps also his associates when elections take place next year.

The pending power bill is for Sidhu’s Amritsar house.

PSPCL Superintending Engineer GS Khaira said: “The bill has been pending for over eight months. Sidhu owed us Rs 17,62,742. He paid about Rs 10 lakh in March”.

The height of it is that all industries in Punjab have been forced to shut down for two days so that electricity supply could be diverted towards the agriculture sector.

On this front too, the power supply was erratic on Saturday, July 3, and thus there were widespread protests across Punjab by domestic consumers and the farming community. The unscheduled cuts for about four hours were reported more in Doaba and Majha regions while Malwa region had faced the power cut in the last three days.

Throughout the day while there were TV debates and tweets and postings on social media on power shortage in the agri-rich state and also about his pending bills, Mr Sidhu chose not to share his views on the row. Paradoxically, in the run up to the state assembly polls by March 22, Sidhu is seen as a ‘trusted’ lieutenant of Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka as against Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

Amid all these, Sidhu has chosen to advise the chief minister (and his political rival) to bring down the power cost by ‘renegitiating’ with private thermal plants.

In a series of tweets he further wrote: “Punjab already gives Rs 9000 Crore Power Subsidy but Delhi gives only Rs 1699 Crore as Power Subsidy. If Punjab copies Delhi Model, we will get merely 1600-2000 Crore as Subsidy. To better serve the People of Punjab – Punjab needs an Original Punjab Model, Not a copied Model”.

Attacking the Akali leadership, he wrote: “Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) – Badal Govt signed PPAs with 3 Private Thermal Power Plants in Punjab. Till 2020, Punjab has already paid 5400 Crore due to faulty clauses in these Agreements and is expected to pay Rs 65,000 Crore of Punjab People’s Money just as fixed charges”.

Akali Dal in a tweet mocked the cricketer-turned-politician and also Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. “Captain saab, if you have got some time from harassing the people of Punjab with power crises, then please pay your attention to the minister who has pending electricity bills worth lakhs of rupees. And shower your blessings upon him,” the Akali Dal tweeted with a meme on Mr Sidhu.