BATHINDA, July 26: Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party president Daya Singh Sodhi hinted today that the state government will roll back its decision of hiking power tariff by 33 per cent. A decision to this effect is likely to be taken tomorrow when Sodhi, along with industrialists from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Batala, Gobindgarh and some other major towns, will meet Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.He, however, declined to divulge the details as to how much decrease was on the cards. Sodhi said that since the day he came to know about the power hike, he had been opposing it tooth and nail. He said that such an increase in the power tariff was unjustifiable and he had conveyed these feelings to the Chief Minister.Sodhi said the BJP ministers, being party to the state government, had participated in this decision of power hike, but the party as a unit had not been consulted before taking such a ``drastic step''.In yet another significant statement, Sodhi said that the promise of abolition of octroi made by the SAD-BJP alliance during the Assembly elections was not wise. He said that after getting a survey done on the subject, the government had concluded that octroi in the state could not be abolished. ``The people should forget about the fulfillment of this poll promise,'' he said. He rather advocated the proposal that octroi work should be handed over to private contractors to feed the resource-starved Municipal Committees and Corporations.Sodhi, however, parried a question whether the decision of free power supply to farmers to run their tubewells was also unwise? He was here to participate in the concluding ceremony of three-day state-level training camp of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.Talking to media persons, Sodhi said that Punjab BJP and SAD had no different opinions on the Udham Singh Nagar issue. He said that the sentiments of the locals who had made the barren land fertile should be honoured and while taking a decision their view points be given prominence.Sodhi clarified that it was wrong to presume that the BJP was blindly following the Akali Dal in every policy decision. ``We do protest where needed,'' he said Meanwhile, president of BJYM Rama Sis Rai said that the morcha would urge Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to implement a ``Yuva Niti'' prepared by it to solve the problems of teeming million youngsters throughout the country.He demanded that military studies be introduced as a compulsory subject in schools and colleges in the wake of increasing threat perception to the country from the powers abroad.
