A few months after he alleged that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was totally inaccessible, Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Power, Coal and Mines Piyush Goyal met her on Friday at the Secretariat here.
It turned out to be a warm and friendly meeting, sources said. Ms. Jayalalithaa was courteous and cordial and told him that he was a very efficient Minister. Taken by surprise, Mr. Goyal was also appreciative of her efforts in making Tamil Nadu surplus with power, sources say.
Ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in May, Mr. Goyal had publicly criticised Ms. Jayalalithaa claiming that she was “inaccessible” as Chief Minister and criticised the government led by her for not joining the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme that would benefit people at large.
With the AIADMK government back in power, Mr. Goyal met Ms. Jayalalithaa and both looked friendly.
Ms. Jayalalithaa told the Union Minister of State that a high-level team from the State will discuss power sector issues with him in New Delhi soon. Briefing him on how her government has turned around the power situation to be a power sufficient and surplus state in the past five years by adding 8432.5 MW to the grid, she reiterated her request to set up a dedicated green power corridor.
Reiterating that all these points were part of the memorandum submitted by her to the Prime Minister recently, Ms. Jayalalithaa asked Mr. Goyal to consider the requests positively.
