To protest against ‘inflated’ water and electricity bills in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal announced an indefinite fast from Friday.
“We have no demands, as this (Delhi) Government is deaf. For us, the fast would be a rallying point to garner public support to launch a non-co-operation movement. We are asking people not to pay their bills,” Kejriwal said at a press conference here.
The activist-turned-politician said he would sit on fast in a resettlement area in Sundernagari, East Delhi, in the house of a widow who had to take a loan to pay her bills. During the fast, AAP activists will conduct house-to-house campaigns in 264 wards. Kejriwal, however, gave no time-frame of how long his fast would last.
Kejriwal, who has thrown his hat in the ring in the elections due in Delhi later this year, said the AAP had appealed to the people not to pay ‘inflated’ water and power bills, but the response was not too good, as the people were scared.
“This fast will, hopefully, bring them together to get over that fear,” he said, and added that was the “only way to tackle the profits being pocketed by corporates and the Sheila Dikshit Government.”
“We don’t know who to believe. The Chief Minister says the power companies are making a Rs 20,000-crore loss, but the Delhi Governor says they are making a Rs 30,000-crore profit,” Kejriwal said.
He also flayed the opposition BJP for not raising a single question in the Delhi Assembly on the ‘inflated’ power and water bills.
aditi.n@thehindu.co.in