Continuing his attack on the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government for its “failure” to substantially increase the State’s power generation capacity, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday alleged that the then dispensation had even projected the achievement of private sector as its own with respect to power generation.
“The previous government not only failed to give the required attention to increasing power generation, but also went to the extent of listing the achievement of private companies in power generation as that of the government’s. This is not correct,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said while speaking at the 44th foundation day celebrations of Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) in Bangalore. “How can they claim credit for power generated by private sector?You must know that the State has to pay crores of rupees to buy that power,” he said.
The Chief Minister did not even spare KPCL. He pointed out that the actual generation of KPCL is much below its installed capacity. He directed its top officials to focus on tapping the full potential of its power plants and increasing power generation.
In response to the Chief Minister’s observations, KPCL officials said that actual generation was only about 3,600 MW though its installed capacity had touched 6,499 MW.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also asked the officials of transmission and distribution sectors to plug loopholes, reduce energy losses and augment the network to reduce overloading as well as congestion.
Asserting that his government would focus on increasing power generation, the Chief Minister said he would give personal attention to the power sector.
“Power generation is crucial to the State’s development. In fact, industrial development and food production also have been affected due to power shortage,” he said. Underscoring the importance of technical personnel in improving the efficiency in the power sector, he said: “We can only make policies, but it is for you people to make things happen.”
Additional Chief Secretary to Energy Department S.K. Pattanayak, KPCL Managing Director M.R. Kamble, KPTCL Managing Director S. Selvakumar and Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey were present.
