Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers on Thursday protested for waiver of electricity bills to consumers during the lockdown period. The AAP workers also burnt ‘Vachannama’ of Shiv Sena during the protest. A press release of AAP said that Chif Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in his manifesto during the Assembly elections had promised to reduce the power tariff by 30% for those consuming 300 units of power per month. However, the CM announced on Wednesday that he would not give any waiver for power consumption during the lockdown period. Shockingly, the power tariff was increased by 20% from April 1, the press release claimed.

 

AAP also alleged that Shiv Sena, which is chanting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s name everyday, has lied with the people by taking a very double stand over electricity bills. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj used to take care of the people during drought or any natural calamity. On the contrary, the Shiv Sena is taking anti-people decisions, the press release alleged. The State Government’s decision of no waiver to electricity bills is like rubbing salt on the wounds when many people were unemployed due to the recession.

 

The AAP is agitating for power tariff cuts since June this year. An AAP delegation had lodged a complaint against Uddhav Thackeray but the police administration have not not taken any action. Hundreds of AAP workers took part in the ‘Ghantanaad’ agitation across the State. They also burnt Shiv Sena’s Vachannaama. The AAP will continue the agitation till the consumers do not get waiver for upto the usage of 200 units, the press release claimed.

 

The protest was organised under the guidance of AAP’s State convenor Ranga Rachure. State Committee Member and Vidarbha Convener Devendra Wankhede, State Treasurer Jagjit Singh, Nagpur Union Minister Shankar Ingole, Nagpur Secretary Bhushan Dhakulkar, Nagpur Co-Coordinator Prashant Nilatkar, State Youth Front Member Krital Velekar, Nagpur Youth Front Coordinator Girish Titramare, Nagpur Joint Secretary Sanjay Singh, Nagpur Youth Front Secretary Prateek Bawankar, Akash Kawle, Laxmikant Dandekar, Vikas Gharade, Afsar Sheikh, Jai Prakash Pawanikar, Hidayat Ali, Afdul Afiz Sheikh, Sharif Ahmed, Vijay Dhakate, Kishore Chimurkar, Sanjay Jivtode, Vijay Chapale, Ravindra Ghidode, Sanjay Ansare, Gunnu Behar, Dilip Bidkad, Chandrasekhar Lokhande, Dilip Chokhadre, Santosh Vaidya, Bansod Kaka, Nikhil Menwade, Arvind Paunikar, Roshan Dongre, Jai Chouhan, Sachin Lonkar, Surendra Bargade, Jagjit Singh, Bhupal Savarkar, Nilesh Gahlot, Ravikant Wagh, Deepak Bhatkhore, Hemant Pandey, Vaishali Dongre, Deepali Patil, Amol Hadke, Sweety Indurkar, Madhuri Nahate, Shila Srivastava, Vina Bhoyar, Shoaib Varshi and others took part in the protest.