TRS, Congress in the grip of ‘Power’ politics

Hyderabad: The issue of power tariff is back in focus in Telangana political drama. With TPCC working president, Mr A Revanth Reddy demanding for a CBI probe into power tariff, a lot of political tension seems to be looming over it. "Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) made for additional supplies are also resulting in further loss," said Mr Reddy.

Congress MP Mr Revanth Reddy has alleged that TS Genco CMD D Prabhakar Rao is lying on power tariff regarding purchases from the Chhattisgarh government. Mr Reddy further went on record saying that it wouldn’t be wrong to shoot him (Prabhakar Rao) in front of Gun Park.

On the other side, all Electricity Employees’ Unions came together in support of Genco CMD, Prabhakar Rao and

protested against Revanth Reddy’s allegations. The unions staged a dharna at Vidyut Soudha and demanded Revanth Reddy to withdraw his comments against the CMD and its employees.

Revanth Reddy said that Telangana government is purchasing power at Rs 3.90 per unit and the DISCOMs are charging Rs 5.20 per unit from its consumers.

“The TRS government has signed an MoU with the Chhattisgarh government on electricity purchase for 12 years at a tariff higher than the market price. This is causing an Rs12,000 crore additional burden on the exchequer. Moreover, Adani Group is behind this deal as it’s supplying coal to Marva power generation station. If the Telangana government invites the open bidding, we would have received power at a reasonable tariff. The power is being purchased under the emergency electricity purchases category at a higher price."

“The PPAs for additional power is also a fraud. For instance, the agreement made in 2016-17 on power purchase has not utilised this. Due to this non-utilisation, the government incurred a Rs 957 crore loss. Another example is that the government purchased electricity on August 28th at Rs 6.08 per unit. AP Genco is offering electricity at Rs 4.62 per unit. But, our government is purchasing power from private companies at Rs 4.90 per unit. NTPC is ready to offer electricity at a reasonable rate. But the TRS government is not allocating land to NTPC for the 4,000-MW power plant.