Battle For Bijlee, Pani Rages On

Oppn blows a fuse in House

• Demand grows for withdrawal of tariff hike proposal and FSA burden

• CPM terms CM's statement as full of lies
• MIM rues over endless debates
• CPI demands all-party meeting on the issue

Hyderabad: Accusing the Congress government of being responsible for the present power crisis, opposition parties on Tuesday demanded the government to withdraw its proposal to hike power tariff from next financial year, stop collecting Fuel Surcharge Adjustment (FSA) from power consumers and scrap the Merchant Power Policy. Participating in the debate on power issue in the Assembly on the second day, CPM floor leader J Ranga Reddy alleged that the tabled Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's statement on power was full of lies. The lopsided power policies adopted by the government put a burden of Rs 34,000 crore on power consumers. No steps were taken to tide over power crisis except imposing continuous power cuts, he added. Demanding the cancellation of permission given to private companies to generate power under Merchant Policy which allowed them to sell power to otherA states neglecting the State interests, Ranga Reddy asked the government as to why separate feeders were not installed for lift irrigation schemes. Alleging that the power sector in the State was in a complete mess, AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said that lot of debate on power crisis has took place in the last 15 years but no measures were taken to address the problem. Domestic, industry, hospitals and agriculture sectors were affected badly due the continuous power cuts and imposition of huge FSA burden. The power crisis would have been solved if the government augmented power generation capacity under APGENCO, he added. CPI senior leader and MLA K Sambasiva Rao took strong exception to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's comment that it was not in his hands to solve the power crisis. The only way to address the present power crisis was to stop supplying gas to Gujarat, Ambani and L Rajagopal's power projects and divert the same to State projects. He demanded the government to convene an all party meeting and seek

suggestions to overcome the power crisis

Telangana Nagara Samithi leader N Janardhan Reddy said Telangana was discriminated in the allocation of power for agriculture. No power has been provided to lift irrigation projects resulting in drying up of crops in the region, he added. Water, gas crunch led to crisis: Ponnala Hyderabad: State IT Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Tuesday said that depleted water reserves in hydel power projects and scarcity of gas for gas based power plants is the main reason for the present power crisis in the State. In a reply to the debate on the power issue in the Assembly, he said that the government neither imagined nor anticipated the present power situation. He said that due to the lack of water, hydel power generation has been reduced to 700 MW from 2500 MW and power generated from gas-based plants has been nil. Claiming that power generation has been increased to 85,000 MW in 2012-13 from 46,000 MW in 2004 by enhancing the installed capacity of APGENCO owned power projects, the minister said that the power deficit in the State was 16.5 per cent as the demand and supply gap widened in summer. As a part of short term measures to tide over the power crisis, Lakshmaiah said that the government was purchasing RLNG to generate around 450 MW power in the gas based power plants for which the per unit cost is being estimated at Rs 12.50. Stating that the government has given top priority to supply seven-hour power to the farming sector to ensure that the standing crops are protected, he said that 1200 MW of power has been tied up through short term purchases. Centre allocated 100 MW from central generating stations of eastern station and 281 MW from Jhajjar power plant to meet the power demand. "Estimating that the power demand will go up to 1.06 lakh units in the years to come, the government has taken long term measures as well," Lakshmaiah said adding that new power plants will come up in the next one year which includes the 1040 MW of Hinduja power project with provision for 100 per cent sale to AP Discoms and around 500 MW of wind power is proposed for commissioning during next one year. Referring to the FSA on consumed power, the minister said that increased coal and gas prices, taxes, hiked transport costs and expensive power purchase are the major reasons for burdening the consumers in the form of FSA.

YSRCP to take 'power' fight to Cong backyard

• To tour 'VIP' constituencies to assess impact on agriculture

Hyderabad: To intensify its struggle against power crisis and prove Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy factually wrong that not a single acre of crop suffered due to power cuts, the YSR Congress Party on Tuesday announced to undertake a tour in some selected VIP assembly constituencies to assess the withered crops due to non-supply of power. Soon after the debate on power crisis ended and the Assembly adjourned sine die here on Tuesday, the YSRCP MLA K Ramachandra Reddy said to expose the government's failure in providing seven-hour power supply to agriculture, the party MLAs would visit the villages in the VIP constituencies. He said the YSRC Party would show the evidences of dried up of standing crops in rabi season proving the Chief Minister wrong. Reddy said all MLAs of the party will visit the agricultural lands in the constituencies of Chief Minister (Pileru), Deputy Chief Minister D Raja Narasimha (Andhole), Speaker Nadendla Manohar (Tenali) and Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (Madhira) to assess the crop losses and highlight the plight of the farmers in their constituencies. He alleged that the Indiramma Baata taken up by the Chief Minister to redress the grievances of people at the doorsteps was turned into a Congress party affair. Instead of discussing people's issues, the Chief Minister was holding party meetings to ascertain the party's prospects in local body and general elections.