Arvind Kejriwal slams Prime Minister, urges him to spend public money judiciously

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RTI crusader and India Against Corruption ( IAC ) member Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over his remark that 'money doesn't grow on trees.'

Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, Kejriwal urged Singh to handle public's money cautiously.

"I just want to say this to the Prime Minister that money doesn't grow on trees. A man really sweats hard at work to earn money.

''Even a poor man, rickshaw puller in this country pays taxes. When a rickshaw puller buys soap or a matchstick from a shop then he pays taxes.''

''So the government charges tax from everybody and gives Rs. 13,00,000 crore subsidies to big companies. So I just want to tell Prime Minister to be careful about public money as it doesn't grow on tree, a man works day and night to earn that money and then he pays taxes," Kejriwal said.

Commenting over the steep price rise in recent years, Kejriwal urged the government to reduce the burden of common man.

"The electricity tariff in Delhi has been increased twice the existing rates in last one and a half to two years. It has become very difficult for ordinary people to pay this increased electricity bills.''

''These electricity tariffs have been increased not because these electricity companies are running in losses, they are running in profits, these electricity tariffs have been increased due to huge corruption and to benefit the electricity companies,'' he said

''We have very strong evidence to show that there is a collusion between the electricity companies, Delhi electricity regulatory commission and the Delhi government," he added.

Earlier, the city's electricity regulatory commission, while announcing the tariff slab, had said that the domestic consumers would have to pay almost 26 percent more for power from July 01.