Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has categorically stated that the State government will be supportive of Telangana Power Utilities apart from extending the required financial stimulus.
He said that the government would take all measures to ensure that the power utilities whose performance was exemplary in generation, distribution and supply and became a role model for the country would not face any financial crisis. The government would clear the pending bills of local bodies as one-time settlement.
The development of the State was linked to the performance of electricity department and in future strict policy would be followed to ensure public sector units, government departments and local bodies pay their bills every month promptly.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao announced that ‘Power Week’ would be organised in villages and towns to address the grievances related to electricity. He held a review meeting on Energy Department at Pragathi Bhavan here on Wednesday.
He said that by the time Telangana was formed, the State was going through a power crisis. But today quality power is being supplied 24x7 to all the sectors. No where in the country 24-hour free supply is given to agriculture sector as in Telangana. The department should ensure that there are no power failures anywhere in the State, he said.
‘Pay bills promptly’
He emphasised that everyone should pay bill for the electricity that is consumed. Every gram panchayat, municipality, corporation, Hyderabad Metro Water Supply should pay the power bills on time. For failure to pay electricity bills, action would be taken against sarpanch and village secretary in villages and chairperson and commissioners in municipalities.
The pending power bills should be cleared under one-time settlement to eliminate dues to the electricity departments, he said.
Streetlights in villages and towns should be operated with discipline. The government departments are also not paying the bills regularly and hereafter the Finance Department would release electricity bills of government departments from their respective budgets, he said.
LI schemes
Pre-paid meters should be fixed for supply of electricity for use by the government. The expenditure towards free power supply to farmers and lift irrigation schemes would be borne by the government and a special grant would be allocated for this in the budget itself. The government would stand guarantee for the power utilities to mobilise resources for strengthening their systems.
The Chief Minister also announced that an action plan is being formulated for the works to be taken up immediately in gram panchayats and municipalities.
Repair works related to damaged electricity poles, cable wires would be taken up and a scientific assessment of power required for each village and town would be made.
A policy would also be brought to provide land in layouts in towns and cities for setting up transformers and sub-stations.
He directed the Irrigation and Energy departments to meet regularly and make estimates for the power required for the lift irrigation schemes. Solar power that is available at cheaper cost should be generated to meet the demand from lift irrigation schemes and directed the officials to invite tenders for generating 1,000 MW solar power. The Finance Department should formulate a financial policy to help the energy sector whenever it required.
The meeting was attended by Minister E. Dayakar Rao, officials of Energy Department, Power Utilities, Finance, CMO, Irrigation, GHMC and others.
