Govt. committed to energy conservation, says Balineni

‘Ensured that there were no power outages even during coal crisis’

Minister for Energy, Science and Technology, and Environment and Forests Balineni Srinivasa Reddy called upon members of Self-Helf Groups (SHGs) to spread the word on energy conservation starting with their family in order to achieve energy efficiency and help the State strengthen the power sector.

Addressing the ‘Mega workshop on energy conservation to self-help group women’ and Energy Conservation Week awards ceremony here on Monday, Mr. Srinivasa Reddy said that spreading the message of energy conservation through SHG members who are about one crore in number would be a big step forward in reducing the carbon footprint.

The Minister said that the State government is committed to strengthening the power sector and has already saved over ₹2,500 crore by way of energy conservation so far. He said though the previous government borrowed over ₹70,000 crore on the power sector, the YSRCP government ensured that no burden is caused to the consumers.

He said that over 7,500 linemen were recruited by the State government.

Mr. Srinivasa Reddy said that the government ensured no power outages even as the country faced severe coal shortage recently. Mr. Reddy and Energy secretary N. Srikant presented the energy conservation week awards to winners from across the State.

In energy conservation practices, Dalmia Cement, Kadapa won gold in the cement industries category while NSL Textiles won gold among the textile industries, Sailaja Plastics of Anantapur won gold in the MSME sector. Among the urban local bodies, Bobbili municipality of Vizianagaram won gold and the Electric Traction Training Centre of South Central Railway in Vijayawada won gold in the commercial buildings category.

Koneru Lakshmaiah Educational Foundation won gold in the universities and educational institutions category.

In the short video competition, students of SNMC Urdu Girls High School, Vijayawada received first prize while ZP High School, Turuvolu of Visakhapatnam bagged second prize while JMJ EM High School, Namburu, Guntur won third prize. In the slogan competition, students of JM EM High School, Nabumur of Guntur district won the first prize while Sri Guru Raja EM School, Kurnool and ZPHS Davajigudem of Krishna won second and third prizes respectively.

SERP CEO A.Md. Imtiaz, MEPMA MD V. Vijaya Lakshmi, CPDCL chairman and managing director J. Padma Janardhan Reddy, AND AP State Energy Conservation Mission CEO A. Chandrasekhar Reddy took part in the programme.