Another U-turn by Arvind Kejriwal; free electricity to only those who apply

New Delhi: In yet another U-turn, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said online and offline methods will be made available to consumers to opt for power subsidy from Wednesday.

During his campaign in Gujarat and Himachal, Kejriwal has been claiming that "no one" in Delhi and Punjab pays for electricity.

Delhi government spends Rs 3,000 crore annually on subsidy against free electricity.

The exercise will be repeated every year and the AAP government will launch an awareness campaign in media every year asking people to leave subsidy.

At a press conference here, he said power consumers in Delhi can give a missed call on 7011311111 to opt for the subsidy from today.

Kejriwal said many people wanted to give up power subsidy in Delhi. Those who want to avail subsidy will get a form that they can fill to apply. They can also give a missed call on 7011311111 whereby they will get a form on WhatsApp that they can fill up to apply for subsidy.

Those applying for subsidy till October 31 will be paid subsidy of the month. Every month people can apply for subsidy, he added.

Kejriwal also claimed that the BJP approached 10 MLAs of the AAP government in Punjab and alleged it was buying MLAs and breaking governments.

The ruling AAP in Punjab on Tuesday accused the BJP of offering Rs 20-25 crore each to its MLAs in an attempt to topple the Bhagwant Mann government in the state.

The Punjab had BJP dubbed the allegations as "baseless" and "bundle of lies" and said AAP is trying to divert attention of people from its "failures".