The former Electricity Minister A.K. Balan has blamed the United Democratic Front (UDF) government for its inept management and failure to foresee the power crisis leading to a steep tariff hike in the State.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Balan pointed out that the massive hike had dealt a severe blow to the people. The State’s industry would be forced to shut down owing to the impact of the tariff hike, he said.
He wondered whether investors would participate in the forthcoming ‘Emerging Kerala’ event in such a scenario. Mr. Balan said entrepreneurs would not come to the State, unless they got power at affordable rates.
“There was no crisis management plan before the government. The government should have foreseen such a crisis,” he said.
Stating that the government could have avoided such a huge hike as done by neighbouring States, including Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Balan said the hike would severely affect the lives of the people belonging to the economically and socially backward communities. It will be the common man who will be forced to face the brunt of the power tariff hike, he said.
Claiming that the previous Left Democratic Front government had initiated nearly 30 projects to step up power generation in the State, Mr. Balan said many of the projects introduced by the LDF government had been put on hold by the present government.
Referring to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP), Mr. Balan accused the Prime Minister of having succumbed to pressure exerted by Tamil Nadu by agreeing to allot the entire electricity to be generated at the plant to the State. He said Kerala holds the right to nearly 260 MW of power from the nuclear power plant.
Rejecting the Centre’s observation that Kerala had difficulty in drawing its share of electricity from KKNPP due to the limitations of the existing transmission lines, Mr. Balan said the UDF government was not highlighting the alternatives available before it to resolve the issue.
Explaining that controversies and opposition from various quarters had hampered the State’s prospects of increasing power generation capacity, Mr. Balan said the Athirapally hydro-electric project could be implemented without causing harm to the ecology. No power projects in the State will become a reality, if the Madhav Gadgil report on the Western Ghats is accepted, he said.
