The Congress has dismissed the ‘historic initiative’ claims of the Telangana government on the 24-hour free supply to farmers saying that the country has surplus power with no buyers, and government was only purchasing at exorbitant rates keeping the public in the dark on the huge burden to be imposed on them in the next few years.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is trying to project his image with false media advertisements when not a single new unit has been produced in Telangana since its formation, Congress leaders said at a power point presentation here on ‘facts and figures’.
The presentation made by Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council Mohd.Ali Shabbir and chief spokesperson Sravan Dasoju charged the Chief Minister with false claims on production and supply.
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‘Faulty deals’
Mr. Shabbir Ali accused Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao of deliberately diluting the State-run TSGENCO capacity and buying power from private players at exorbitant rates. The CM is not even responding to the question on how he will clear the ₹12,000 crore loan of TS Discoms. And now by purchasing power at abnormal prices he is burdening the State, he said.
Mr. Sravan said Sonia Gandhi had allotted Sileru Project to Telangana and also a power project to be built by NTPC realising the shortage when the State was formed but TRS could not retain Sileru project due its inefficiency. The Jeypore and Bhupalapally projects were built by the Congress and commissioned after elections. He said as per the anticipated power supply for 2017-18 in South India there was 7.4% surplus available with Telangana accounting for 6.3% surplus. Similar was the case in most states and this was due to the vision of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. So where is Telangana Government’s contribution in generating power?
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All states
Mr. Sravan charged that instead of managing available power efficiently, the government has entered into a faulty agreement with the Chattisgarh Government costing ₹6 per unit when it was available for ₹3.30 in the open market.
Summing up the presentation, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy blasted the Chief Minister for his claims in the advertisements issued to newspapers on 24-hour power supply. Ridiculing Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, he asked whether the Chief Minister would also take credit for 25 other States becoming energy surplus which includes Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala. The two power projects — Bhadradri and Yadadri — started by TRS government will take another four to five years for completion but the CM was claiming as if his government overcame the power shortage with new projects. “Even power purchased from private players were shown as installed capacity in the media advertisements released across the country.” With a capacity of mere 2300 MW in 1951, the country is now producing nearly 3 lakh MW of power only due to the foresight of Congress leadership, he reminded.
Senior leaders of the party including V. Hanumantha Rao, A. Revanth Reddy, P. Sudhakar Reddy, Banda Karthika were present.