Malik for ‘one nation, one power’ tariff

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 15

Raising the issue of high power tariff in Punjab, state BJP president Shwait Malik today demanded that the government should implement “one nation, one electricity rates”, particularly when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has talked about one nation, one grid in her Budget speech.

Highlighting the high power tariff in Punjab, which he said, stood at Rs 8 per unit, Malik claimed that neighbouring Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal charged Rs 3 per unit and Haryana Rs 6 per unit. Noting that in the today’s world nothing moved without electricity, the BJP MP said, “Now we need to add power in the roti, kapda aur makaan slogan.”

Malik said because of different rates of power tariff, the state was suffering the most. “Several of the industrial units are either being closed or shifted to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir,” he said, adding that there was an urgent need to bring parity in the cost of electricity.