New Delhi : Slamming Arvind Kejriwal over recent hike in power charges, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gautam Gambhir on Saturday said that in the past eight years, people of Delhi have just been at the receiving end of propaganda and hogwash. Lok Sabha Member from East Delhi, Gambhir noted that before becoming the Chief Minister, Kejriwal and his associates had claimed that upon assuming office, they will clean up the system which will result in huge savings for the public exchequer.
"They had claimed that with clean governance and administration, electricity prices will reduce drastically. However, in the past 8 years, people of Delhi have just been at the receiving end of propaganda and hogwash. In reality not a single person in Delhi gets electricity for free," Gambhir said.
Cricketer-turned-politician mentioned that out of the 58 lakh households consuming electricity, only half (around 30 lakh) utilise less than 200 units which are not charged by power distribution companies directly. "Another 16 lakh avail subsidy upto Rs 800. Therefore, 11 lakh households in Delhi have to pay for electricity at Rs. 10 per unit which is one of the highest in the entire country," he said.
Gambhir claimed that private electricity companies collect around Rs 20,000 crore every year and out of this, Rs 16,000 crore are paid directly by the people of Delhi against their bills. "Remaining Rs 4,000 crore is paid by Delhi Government as subsidy. Money for this subsidy also comes from the taxes paid by the people. So where are the savings of the public exchequer because of so called 'honest' governance. You know what else people of Delhi pay for? Advertising budget of Mr. Kejriwal to the tune of hundreds of crore every month to promote this myth that electricity is free in Delhi," Gambhir said.
He stated that this amount of Rs 4,000 crore along with the advertising budget should be used to build infrastructure for the poor, redevelopment of slums, build roads, flyover, hospitals. "None of that is being done. All of us are being fooled by a 'conman' who has never honoured a single promise made by him including his promise of never entering politics, the BJP MP added. --- (IANS)