‘One note one vote’ Ludhiana BJP drive kicks off today - Grewal

Ludhiana , 10 March 2014 -
BJP Kisan Morcha's National Secretary and Prabhari Himachal Pradesh Advocate Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal said that with an eye on reaching out to at least 10 crore families in the country, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would unveil the “one note, one vote” campaign today at Ludhiana. Talking with the media persons here today on the occasion of "one note one vote" after drive kicks off at Kishore Nagar, Tajpur Road Ludhiana with BJYM workers Grewal said that the ‘one note, one vote’ campaign aims at party workers reaching the voters at their doorstep with a plea to vote for the BJP and seeking funds to meet election expenses. He said if we count four votes in a family, in the country we are seeking 40 crore voters. The party workers would fan out at the booth level and would seek voluntary contributions. Grewal said that our party workers would collect one note from every household, in denominations ranging between Rs 5 note and Rs 1,000 in the steel boxes designed for this occasion. He also stated that our party BJP is prepared for the upcoming elections and aims to win a clear majority on its own strength’, as the world’s largest democracy goes to polls after the Election Commission announced the dates, dubbed as the largest elections to be held in nine phases. He said that political parties were joining forces with the BJP due to its mass appeal and the promise to give stable and corruption free government. He said that it's very natural that more and more people are joining BJP, as everybody can see the inclination of the masses toward the party. And this inclination towards BJP is growing with time. Grewal said that I am very confident that the BJP will attain clear majority in the next coming General Elections in our country. At this time Dharmawati Mishra, Amit Gosain , Jagdish Sharma , Harsh Sharma , Sumit Tandon , Lalit Aggarwal , Brijesh Patel, Deepak Katyal ,Dharmendra Sharma, Satish Aggarwal , Arun Patel , Heera , Amar , Shravan Tiwari , Chander shekhar , Rakesh , Rajbeer Singh , Sandeep Rana , Gagan , Mona , Bintu , Jinder , Kari , Vicky , Rodda , Rahul , Alok , Neela , Vicky Verma , Mukesh Gupta , Happy Singh , Balkar , Mukesh Khurana , Jinder Singh , Jatinder Singh , Prince , Vikas Bedi , Subedar , Happy Kumar , Nishu , Money , Sunil Mishra , Rajiv Kumar , Sarvesh , Nazim , Mahesh , Manga , Rinku Bansal , Sandeep Singh , Navjot , Bindu , Monu Mental , Amanjit , Amandeep , Parmod Sharma and other BJYM workers were present.

Chai Pe Charcha on International Women's Day celebrated all over India - Grewal

Ludhiana , 8 March 2014 -
The second round of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s ''Chai Pe Charcha" (discussion over tea) will be on the International Women’s Day in India between 4 pm to 6.30 pm. On this occasion here today, in Kishore Nagar ward No 9, Tajpur Road, Ludhiana Grewal told reporters on that the programmes will be also in rural areas, the direct discussion with Narendra Modi would be telecast live across all the centres. He said that the Mahila Morchas have already identified the locations for the discussion and about 200 women are expected to participate in each centre in India. Grewal stated that the discussion of Narendra Modi revolves around three issues ''share, question and suggest." While the women can share the problems they face locally, they can ask questions to Narendra Modi on his views about women empowerment and give suggestions about safety of women. He said the  Congress led UPA's Centre Government has utterly failed to assure women’s safety and it is evident in the failure of the police to nab the accused in the ATM attack case despite having the pictures of the accused. Grewal regretted that without any legwork, including recruitment of sufficient women police personnel, the Government has permitted extension of night life. Grewal told that Mahila Morcha organized Chai Pe Charcha interactive session with our BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the country.

Rethink on FDI in retail unlikely - Grewal

Chandigarh , 7 March 2014 -
Days after Narendra Modi suggested that BJP might tilt in favour of FDI in retail, All India Secretary BJP Kisan Morcha Advocate, Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal said a rethink on the issue was unlikely. BJP has steadfastly opposed FDI in retail. In a press statement here today Grewal said that as far as FDI in retail is concerned, the BJP has genuine concerns against this and I don't think, it is quite likely, that policy is going to be changed. He, however, did not dismiss the idea completely. As far as present is concerned, I think it is quite unlikely that the BJP will change, he said, noting that no policy was a policy for the next 100 years. Addressing a traders' conference in Delhi on Thursday, Modi had asked the trading community not to run away from global challenges but adapt itself to modern practices like tying up with bigger stores and online trading, without referring to FDI in retail. Grewal admitted that the BJP was consciously trying to woo the Muslim community ahead of elections and said the party will go full length to implement its three underlined convictions of security, equality and economic progress towards them. There is nothing wrong in it. It's a good sign for India. It's a good sign for BJP. It's a good sign for the minority community members. We and everybody has evolved, It's an appeal being made, he said and admitting that the BJP was making an effort to reach out to the community. Grewal said as far as Muslims were concerned, BJP was not a party that would go on the track of vote bank politics and have religion-based reservation for Muslims. On Pakistan, he said talks and terror could not co-exist and BJP's desire to talk would not outweigh the other surrounding circumstances. Grewal said that the attitude of BJP towards Pakistan if they came to power would be the same as it was during the NDA regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This whole passion and desire that you continue to have dialogue at the highest level irrespective of what the response of Pakistan is. If you have Pakistan's attitude which is not responsive, it is not necessary that the heads of government meet, he said. On the recent Navy accident, he attacked defence minister A K Antony for stopping procurements and turning the situation in the forces to a crisis level and promised to reverse it if BJP came to power in the country.

Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal lashed out at the PSPCL for poor consumer services

Ludhiana , 6 March 2014 -
BJP's national secretary Sukhminder Singh Grewal on Monday lashed out at the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) for poor consumer services and not adhering to the performance standards mandated by Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC).

Grewal, also the former vice-chairman of Punjab Small Industry and Export Corporation, said this while speaking to mediapersons here today.

"Several business houses are keen to invest in Punjab now and we have to check for providing good services," he maintained. The PSERC has specified distribution parameters to provide efficient and reliable power supply.

Grewal said these minimum standards of performance (MSOP) provide strict timeframe to resolve various consumer grievances such as overhead line breakdown, underground cable breakdown, distribution transformer failure, power transformer failure, street light faults etc.

He said the PSERC had mandated a compensation to consumers in case of non-fulfillment of these minimum standards of performance. He said compensation varies from Rs. 50 to Rs. 5,000 in case of each default.

He claimed that PSPCL neither fulfilled the MSOP nor compensated the consumers for lapse and also failed in resolving the specific complaints within four hours or remitting the compensation.

Grewal said even as the PSERC mandated the registration of each and every complaint filed by the consumers verbally, telephonically or in writing, there was hardly any such effective system in place to register or address the consumer complaints.

"According to the annual revenue requirement (ARR ) filed by the PSPCL with the PSERC, only 2,462 complaints were received in a year from over 65 lakh consumers in Punjab. On an average, over 10,000 complaints are received daily by PSPCL which means it had fudged the ARR figures to avoid compensation and save itself from action by PSERC," Grewal added.

Grewal said he would write to RajyaSabha MP and party's Punjab affairs in-charge Shanta Kumar, SAD president and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma among others to pass strict instructions to the PSPCL in this connection in the state.
 

Power commission allows PSPCL to introduce VDS - Grewal

Patiala , 5 March 2014 -
BJP Kisan Morcha National Secretary and Prabhari Himachal Pradesh Advocate, Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal said that the power regulator has approved the voluntary disclosure scheme (VDS) for domestic supply, small power/medium supply and agriculture power consumers to increase their power loads, a major demand of the farming community. Talking with the media persons here today he said that with water level going down every year, farmers resort to use of submersible pumps to pump water, which consumes more than two time electricity than traditional water pumps. Thus, farmers were facing threat of penalty, as most of them switched to submersible pumps, without making addition to their sanctioned power load. He said that Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) allowed the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited to introduce the VDS. The VDS scheme shall be initially introduced for a period of two months and will be extended by one month depending upon the response of consumers. During the pendency of the scheme, there will not be checking of connected load and no penalty will be levied for unauthorized extension of load. As per the proposal, the PSPCL will allow 20 per cent rebate on service connection charges for the consumers. Service charges shall be applicable on extended load only. The augmentation of service line/ transformer shall be done by the PSPCL. In case of agriculture consumers, the total load shall not exceed 20 BHP and for load exceeding 20 BHP, metered supply shall be given.  Small and medium power consumers shall be allowed to declare the unauthorised load to the extent of 100 per cent, provided there is no change of category. Earlier also, there had been a very good response to the voluntary disclosure scheme for voluntarily disclosing unauthorized load by various category consumers. In view of the fact that most of the farmers have unauthorised load, farmer unions during various protests and at meeting with the government, were demanding VDS for the farming sector. Grewal said that It's a welcome move. Now the farmers who had changed their tubewells to submersible motors can get the benefit of the scheme in Punjab.

PSPCL in the dock over non-payment of interest - Grewal

Ludhiana , 4 February 2014 -
National BJP leader and Secretary All India Kisan Morcha Advocate, Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal today raised an alarm over the non-payment of interest on advance consumption deposit (ACD) to consumers by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) in Punjab. Talking with the media persons here today, he said the annual revenue report of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (ARR) has revealed that it would have a liability of over Rs 1,300 crore as interest on the advance consumption deposit (ACD) towards consumers in 2014 -15. Grewal said the advance consumption deposit is paid by the consumers at the time of getting connections. He said that as per the Electricity Act, 2003, the Punjab government bifurcated the PSEB into PSPCL (distribution and generation) and PSTCL (transmission) on 16th April 2010. Before this, the state government formed the Supply Code, 2007. He said that besides, PSPCL recovered the ACD from consumers using above 100 kw in 2010 and the consumers who used between 20 kw and 100 kw from 2013 to 2014. During this time, it also recovered the ACD from domestic and commercial consumers. He told the ADC stood at about Rs 1,501 crore on April 16, 2010 and PSPCL paid Rs 88.31 crore as interest for 2010-11 to consumers. Grewal added that the calculations suggested that Rs 88.31 was the interest on Rs 654.15 crore and the interest on Rs 847.17 remained unpaid out of a total of Rs 1,501 crore. Grewal stated that the Clause 15 of the Supply Code says that PSPCL would take security from the consumers. However, its section 17.4 also made it clear that in case of its failure to pay 12.25 per cent interest on the ACD to consumers, it would have to pay the double of the interest to consumers. Grewal said that there will be a burden of about Rs 1,300 crore on PSPCL in the next fiscal. As per the Supply Code, the ACD is being recovered from consumers for extension of load, change of name, change of tariff and category, power theft, regularisation of load under various schemes of VDS and others.

PSPCL is providing poor services to the Consumers in Punjab - Grewal

Ludhiana , 2 March 2014 -
National Secretary BJP Kisan Morcha and Prabhari Himachal Pradesh Advocate, Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal said that our SAD-BJP Government has made several efforts to boost the industrial sector in Punjab state. Talking with the media persons here today, Grewal said due to these efforts of SAD-BJP Government as result several business houses are keen to invest in our Punjab. Our Punjab Government had undertaken many power reforms to further facilitate Industrial Houses such as unbundling Punjab State Electricity Board into Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). The intent was to increase the efficiency but unfortunately the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is providing poor services to the Consumers in Punjab. These services and absolute non-adherence of Standards of  Performance mandated by Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) appointed by Government of Punjab. Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has specified critical distribution parameters to provide efficient, reliable and safe system of Electricity through its regulations provided in its Supply Code. These Minimum Standards of Performance provides strict timelines to resolve various Consumer grievances viz. Normal Fuse Off, Overhead Line Breakdowns, Underground Cable Breakdowns, Distribution Transformer Failure, Power Transformer Failure, Street Light Faults, Period of Scheduled Outage, Voltage Fluctuations, Meter Complaints, Release of New Connection, Transfer of Title or Conversion of Services, Shifting of Meter/Service Connection and other Services, Complaints about Consumer’s Bills and restoration of Supply. Grewal said that the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) mandates a compensation to the Consumer in case of non-fulfillment of these Minimum Standards of Performance. Compensation varies from Rs 50/- to Rs 5000/- for each default for each Consumer. It is well known that Punjab State Power Corporation Limited neither fulfils these Minimum Standard of performance (MSOP) nor compensates any Consumer towards any such lapse whereas Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) mandates payment of such compensation by the way of adjustment in Electricity Bills. For instance, Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) mandates a normal fuse off complaint shall be addressed within 4 hours in cities, towns and urban areas and in case Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) fails to resolve the complaint within 4 hours, it shall remit Rs 50/- as compensation by the way of adjustment in the next bill of the Consumer. Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) mandates registration of each and every complaint filed by the Consumer verbally, telephonically or in writing as per a duly approved Consumer Complaint Handling Procedure whereas there is hardly any such effective system in place to register and address consumer complaints. According to the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) filed by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) with the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC), it received only 2462 complaints in a year from over 65 Lac Consumers across Punjab whereas on an average more than 10000 complaints are received daily by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited which clearly means Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) had fudged Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) figures to avoid compensation and save itself from the wrath of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC). Grewal demanded to pass strict instructions to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to ensure registration of each and every complaint and its quick resolution, adhere to the Minimum Standard of performance (MSOP) as mandated by Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) and compensate each and every Consumer in case of any failure on its part. Grewal said that he has also sent Regd. Letter’s on, 30 January 2014 to Hon’ble Sukhbir Singh Badal, President, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Deputy Chief Minister and Power Minister,Government of Punjab, Chandigarh, Hon’ble Ram lal ji, National General Secretary BJP (Org), 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi, Hon’ble Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja ji, PRO Investments,1st floor, Nirmal Complex, Near Baba Namdev Chowk, Civil Lines, Jalandhar, Hon’ble Shanta Kumar MP, ( Rajya Sabha ) Prabhari Punjab Pradesh, 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi Hon’ble Shyam Jhaju, National BJP Secretary and Seh-Prabhari Punjab, 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi, Hon’ble Om Prakash Dhankar, National President BJP Kisan Morcha, 11 Ashoka Road, New Delhi, Hon’ble Kamal Sharma, Punjab State President , BJP Punjab Headquarters, Sector 37-A, Chandigarh, Hon’ble Ajay Jamval, General Secretary (Org), BJP Punjab Headquartes, Sector 37-A, Chandigarh, Hon’ble Tikshan Sud, Political Advisor to CM Punjab, Kothi No-1368 Sector- 19 C,  Chandigarh, Hon’ble Fool Chand Jain ji, RSS Vibhag Sang Chalak, House No: B19- 357/1 Hira Singh Road, Ludhiana for Information and necessary action.