Congress leader A. Revanth Reddy accepted the challenge by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP Balka Suman for an open debate on power issue, saying he would be ready at 2 p.m. on January 12 at any place decided by the TRS.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday evening, he said Alampur MLA Sampath Kumar and TPCC chief spokesperson Sravan Dasoju would participate along with him in the debate.
Earlier, he questioned the motive of the State government in going ahead with power plants when the nation has power-surplus and abundant power was cheaply available in the country at a much lesser cost.
He alleged that the government was favouring a Gujarat-based company in the power plant being built by the State government. He wanted the government to table documents for debate if it was sincere. “It is not only unfriendly to the environment, but also puts a huge burden on the State exchequer for several years,” he said.
The MLA reminded that the Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal had advised the Telangana government to rethink its spending on power projects as power was abundantly available in the country. However, the State government has gone ahead with the construction of two power plants. Moreover, the government was not allotting land to NTPC for a 4,000 MW power plant, as promised in the AP Reorganisation Act.
Mr. Revanth Reddy charged the CM of having hidden motives behind the decision to appoint non-IAS officers to all four government power generation and distribution companies. “Most of these officers have retired and will sign agreements and tenders as per the CM’s wishes, unlike the IAS officers who will question,” he alleged. He said that officers who had advised against new projects and agreements were shunted out.
