Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Opposition alleges neglect of power sector

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD March 3. The Government drew heavy flak from the Opposition in the Assembly on Monday for allegedly messing up the economy and making inadequate budgetary allocation for the power sector.

Winding up the debate on the budget, the Congress MLA, D. Prasada Rao, said the Government had "messed up'' the economy so much that the future dispensations would face a difficult situation when it took over. The position on power front and survival of local bodies was particularly alarming.

Mr. Rao offered to resign from the Assembly if his charge that there will be a hefty power cut, affecting agriculture, after the sessions was not proved right. The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, intervened to say that the Transco Chairman had herself expressed inability to give power to the farm sector beyond March 31.

In the face of a scathing attack by Dr. Reddy and Mr. Rao that he was in no position to declare the Government stand as all Ministers were puppets of the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Power Minister, K. Subbarayudu, said they had no fear nor was their freedom curbed. He only repeated that the Government would protect the standing crop cent per cent. The Excise Minister, T. Sitaram, said their party was a disciplined outfit.

Mr. Rao referred to the closure of seed processing plants of the A.P. Seed Development Corporation and the drop in the milk procurement price by APDDCF to aid the Heritage Foods of which the Chief Minister's wife is the Managing Director in defence of his argument about "anti-farmer'' steps of the Government.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, focussed "the raw deal'' to Telangana in the spending of funds. He wondered how the objectives of Vision 2020 of the Government would be fulfilled in any of the sectors. The Government had allocated Rs. 30.60 crores to the Nettempad project and Rs. 67.65 crores to the Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme in Mahabubnagar district in the last four years but not a rupee was spent on them. The budgetary allocation for various projects in Telangana in the last four years was Rs. 334 crores but the expenditure was only Rs. 11 crores.

Mr. Rao alleged that the Government presented a rosy picture of the irrigation sector in Telangana while the ground reality was that 14 lakh labourers migrated from Mahabubnagar due to lack of work. He regretted that Anantapur and Mahabubnagar continued to be hit by drought a century after the British Government had warned about the vulnerability of the districts to the problem.

The CPI(M-L) MLA, Gummadi Narsaiah, said the Government borrowed loans much in excess of its income and all of it was spent on non-productive sectors to appease MNCs. The Congress MLA, Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, said there was a threefold increase in the income of the State from taxes but the development of the State was not of the order.

The TDP MLA, Revatipati, said the State Government could get World Bank loans because of its creditworthiness.

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