CHANDIGARH: A day after Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singhdivested Navjot Singh Sidhu of the local government department and gave him the power ministry instead, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) lauded Sidhu’s efforts to curb corruption during his tenure as the local bodies minister and urged him to scrap the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the previous SAD-BJP government with private companies.

AAP Sunam MLA Aman Arora wrote a letter to Sidhu and appreciated him for taking on Punjab Congress leadership for “friendly match” between the Congress and the Akalis.

Arora said that Sidhu needed to continue to work in the best interests of the state and a lot needed to be fixed in the power ministry. He urged Sidhu to scrap power purchase agreements (PPAs) by the previous Akali-BJP government with three private thermal power plants wherein the state was bound to pay up to Rs 2,800 crore annually without buying even a single unit from these plants. This could end up with Punjab losing Rs 70,000 crore in next 25 years, he claimed.

Arora reminded Sidhu that all these issues were raised by him on the floor of the assembly during this year’s budget session and were acknowledged and accepted by Sidhu’s predecessors — Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Rana Gurjit Singh. However, the government kept silent and allowed these private power companies to continue with their loot, Arora added.