Chandigarh June 25: Shiromani Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal today said Punjab government's decision to privatise power sector as "financially disastrous and morally criminal" alleging that the decision was dictated by chief minister's commitments to some "big business houses". "Some big business houses pumped in enormous money into the Punjab elections in February last year to ensure a victory for Amarinder Singh...It is repayment time for Amarinder. But the tragedy is that this is being done at the expense of the people of Punjab and state electricity board," he said.

In a statement here, Badal asked the chief minister to explain "as to what is it that he expects the private houses to do over and above what the PSEB was already doing". "On the one hand, the Chief Minister keeps talking of poor fiscal health of several corporations and boards in the state while on the other he keeps loading the same institutions with the burden of new appointments of chairmen and directors", he said.

The Akali leader said the power privatisation experiment had "already failed" in states like Delhi and Maharashtra.

"Even some of the advanced countries had reverted back to the state governed power regime. Captain Amarinder Singh was aware of this but his personal compulsions and questionable past commitments forced him to take a decision that ran against all established norms of economic management", he added. Bureau Report