BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana requested Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to reconsider his government's “short-sighted and rash” decisions in the power sector.
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He alleged that the CM's principal advisor Ajeya Kallam not only intentionally misled people on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) but also ventured to criticise Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s advice to the State for judicious and proper management of energy.
In a letter to the CM on July 4, he questioned Mr. Kallam’s claimed that the government had not withdrawn from the PPAs and sought explanation for why the Singapore, French, Japanese, South Korean and German embassies had warned the State. He asked if it wasn’t a fact that the Japanese Ambassador had written a letter in that regard on August 14, 2019.
The BJP leader said power tariffs in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Gujarat were lower than in Andhra Pradesh. Instead of giving reasons for buying power at ₹11 per unit, Mr. Kallam concealed the clandestine intentions of the State, he alleged.
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Mr. Lakshminarayana pointed out that the State government brought disrepute to the country by undertaking a review of the PPAs and violating court orders.
He further said Union Minister of Power R.K. Singh had stated in a press conference in Hyderabad that there was no evidence of irregularities in the PPAs as alleged by the State government.
The A.P. BJP chief said the central government was against altering the power policies as and when the State government changed but Mr. Reddy was taking arbitrary decisions.
He alleged that the State government had increased power tariffs twice in one year and was purchasing power at exorbitant rates.
In the name of reverse tendering, the government stalled the 940-MW Polavaram hydroelectric power plant and bungled on various other fronts in the sensitive energy sector, Mr. Lakshminarayana added.