The State government would continue to stick to its demands over joining the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme of the Union Power Ministry, Electricity Minister P. Thangamani said in the Assembly on Thursday.
During his reply to the debate on the demand for grants to the Energy Department, Mr. Thangamani referred to the recent statement made by DMK president M. Karunanidhi and said, “He has asked whether we have joined UDAY scheme. If we had joined, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa would have issued a statement. We have raised some demands and those have not been met. We will keep raising them until they are met.”
Listing some of the demands the State government has raised with the Centre, the Minister said one such demand was that the power tariff should be revised once in three months. “We have opposed this provision and several others. We will continue with our demands until they are met,” he said.
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Citing media reports, Mr. Karunanidhi said if the Chief Minister had decided in favour of UDAY, she should have announced it in the Assembly, as it was very crucial to the welfare of the people, agriculture and industry. He said if a State had joined the scheme, it should agree to bear 75 per cent of the debt of the electricity board and revise the tariff every three months.
Making new announcements, the Minister said a solar-wind hybrid power unit would be set up at a cost of Rs. 60 crore at Kayathar in Thoothukudi district. The air pre-heater in the second unit of Thoothukudi Thermal Power Plant would be renovated at a cost of Rs. 6.55 crore.
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A total of 5,000 persons would be trained in solar power technology at a total cost of Rs. 13.50 crore at the rate of Rs. 27,000 per person. Three teams with ex-servicemen would be constituted for monitoring power thefts in the State in addition to the existing 40 teams.