CPI sees red over power deal with Chhattisgarh

Hyderabad: Pointing out that there was no need to purchase power from Chhattisgarh State, the CPI Telangana State secretary Chada Venkat Reddy said the decision could cost Rs. 900 crore to the state exchequer, here on Friday.

In his letter addressed to the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the CPI secretary said there was no need to purchase power from Chhattisgarh as the State would be in a position to produce 24,075 MW power by 2018.

He alleged that the State government has gone against the National Power Policy and the National Tariff Policy with its secret power purchase agreement with the neighboring state while there were several other power producers offering the power at lower prices.

“There is no reason in purchasing power at high price from Chhattisgarh. This will lead to heavy losses to the State”, he said. According to Venkat Reddy, while Andhra Pradesh was purchasing power Rs 4.27 per unit, Telangana is purchasing it from Chhattisgarh at Rs 4.90 to Rs 5 per unit.

He suggested that the State government could have saved money had it directly entered into agreements with power generating companies rather than another State government.

Reminding Basheerbagh incident during the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime in united Andhra Pradesh, he hoped that another Basheerbagh wouldn’t occur in the new State.