DW BUREAU / Chandigarh THE AAM Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab unit on Thursday held a protest, strictly adhering to the Covid-19 safety protocols, against the hefty electricity bills imposed on the consumers during the lockdown. The protests were staged in as many as 11 districts, including Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Mansa, Bathinda, Tarn Taran, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Patiala, Barnala, Faridkot and Moga, where memorandums were handed over to the government through Deputy Commissioners (DCs) seeking exemption in the hefty bills. In a joint statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh on Thursday, party MLA and convener of 'Bijli Morcha', Meet Hayer and state trade wing president Nina Mittal, said while the killer Corona epidemic had been holding the entire globe to a ransom, the governments around the world were trying to save precious lives of their citizens and bail out the traders, businessmen and industries by offering the need-based concessions to them, but the Modi government at the Centre and the Captain government in Punjab had, instead of given any fiscal relief to any section, added to their financial woes. They alleged the Modi government had hiked petrol prices by Rs 6.02 per litre and diesel Rs 6.40 per litre in just 11 days even as the prices of crude oil in the International market had crashed. Similarly, the Captain government had not only hiked the prices of electricity in the state but had also been charging hefty bills from business establishments, including shopping malls, shops, marriage palaces, restaurants, hotels, gyms and even schools for the period during which most of them remained closed. They questioned how justifiable it was getting fixed charges from the commercial power consumers and others, seeking a complete waiver on the electricity bills. Meet Hayer said that the traders, businessmen and industrialists, touted to be very basis of driving the economy of the state, were not spared and were subjected to an open 'loot' in the name of fixed charges for electricity, saying a recent example of the Captain government came to the fore when the government announced a financial stimulus of Rs 350 crore in the form of two months power to medium and large scale industries during the lockdown/ curfew, thus backtracking now by shifting it on to the shoulders of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Nina Mittal on the occasion said that while the industrialists had been directed to run their industries at half the capacity and with equal number of manpower, how justifiable it was them to charge fixed charges from them for the lockdown period, claiming the industry had been made to pay Rs 15-20 per unit due to low production. The AAP leaders also vehemently opposed the move to send power bills to domestic consumers on the basis of last year's meter reading in view of the prevailing weather conditions then and now and the extended national lockdown, adding that sending bills to the consumers on the basis of last year's bills could not stand the test of logic. (editor@dailyworld.in)