Q: He has also accused you of putting pressure on L-G Najeeb Jung. He says that BJP has asked L-G either to toe its line or be ready to move out.
Satish Upadhyay: These are mere allegations. May be he has contacts with the L-G and that's why he has all these information with him. We don't know any such thing because the L-G has not invited us.
He has the habit of making unfounded allegations, demoralize the bureaucracy, political parties and people of Delhi. Since we have our government at centre, he can't say anything except making allegations that we are trying to pressurize the L-G. I don't think I should even react to such charges.
Q: Coming to the power situation in Delhi, you had promised to lower the tariff but actually it has been hiked. Don't you think people of Delhi will feel let down by your government?
Satish Upadhyay: Definitely not. I would like to congratulate the Finance Minister for giving Rs 700 crore for Delhi.He has given Rs 200 crore specifically for Power. This will be used for improvising transmission, changing transformers, reducing generation loss etc. Once all these things are taken care of, power tariff will go down. The power rates have been hiked by the regulator and not the government but they have also reduced power purchase adjustment cost. The effective hike is just 10-15 paise which the people of Delhi fully understand.
What did Kejriwal do? He took out funds from plan budget derailing planned work. They gave subsidies for three to six months. We have not done this. Even the subsidy that we have demanded is for one year only till the time all other loopholes are plugged.
Q: You had promised to bring down power tariff by 30 percent. Do you still stand by that promise?
Satish Upadhyay: Yes. Whatever promises we have made in the manifesto are meant to be executed. They are not mere promises.
