Sheila Dikshit recently took over as Congress's Delhi chief
Upping the ante against the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit on Monday accused the ruling dispensation of employing the same "cunning" strategy which it did four years back during the Assembly polls by claiming electricity rates have been reduced to half.
The former Delhi Chief Minister accused the AAP government of making "false" promises ahead of the elections and said contrary to the government''s claims, the power rates have become costlier than before.
"AAP had employed the same cunning strategy before the Delhi Assembly elections four years ago, that electricity will be provided to the consumers at half the rate but reneged on its promise after coming to power in Delhi," Ms Dikshit said.
"After completing four years in office, the Kejriwal government through newspaper advertisements have been claiming to provide electricity at half rate to Delhi consumers but the reality is that power has now become costly than ever before," Ms Dikshit said at a press conference.
She said fixed charges, new meter security charges, upload charges, service line charges and pension fund collected from the power consumers, account for more money than what the Delhi government claims to give the consumers in subsidy.
"Despite collecting so much money from the power users on various heads, the AAP government has not bothered to ensure upgradation of the transmission lines and distribution network," she added.
Sheila Dikshit said that during the Congress regime the billing cycle for the power consumers used to be once in two months but under the Kejriwal government, it has been changed to monthly to charge more money.
"The consumers are being fleeced by the monthly billing system as they now pay more money in one month than what the Congress government used to charge in a two-month billing cycle. We demand that they fulfill their promise of giving power to the consumers at half the rate without any dilution and withdraw the hike in the fixed charges and security amount which was done intentionally to squeeze the power consumers," she added.