Doing our best: CM

• CM reassures on 7-hr power to farm sector
• T getting more power in view of water scarcity
• No irregularities in coal purchases
• Committee to examine tariff issues

Hyderabad: Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday assured the State Assembly that the government would not lag behind in ensuring seven-hour power supply to the farm sector.A Replying to a two-day debate on the power crisis in the state, Kiran Reddy said that the government was buying power at Rs 12 per unit and was supplying to the agriculture sector and had spent about Rs 6,045 crore as power subsidy during the current fiscal and had earmarked Rs 5,700 crore in the budget for 2013-14. In his spirited reply, Kiran tried to project that no irregularity had taken place since he had become the Chief Minister in the purchase of coal for the thermal power plants. He said that during 2009-10 the coal was purchased at Rs 5,500 per tonne while his government was purchasing coal for Rs 4,870 per tonne which is the lowest in the country. Reddy said that as a short-term measure, the state government had asked the Centre to allocate more power and would soon get about 180 MW from Jhajhar power plant in Haryana.A Referring to criticism that the government had failed to book grid space, he said till recently the state was in a good position as far as power generation was concerned and it did not feel the need to strengthen grid connectivity. However, in view of the problems it had been facing, the government has now gone in for grid connectivity between Raichur and Kurnool as well as with the Eastern grid. Though the Chief Minister did not give any assurance on power tariff hike and Fuel Surcharge Adjustment, he said that a cabinet sub -committee has been constituted to examine the issue and the government would take necessary measures after the committee submitted its report. Refuting the allegations that the state did not enhance the power generation capacity, he said the state had a large number of hydel and gas based power stations. Lack of rainfall last year and shortage of gas supply had pushed the power utilities into difficult situation. Still the government keeping the needs of agriculture was buying power from all available sources at a cost of Rs 12 per unit. Under normal circumstances the hydel generation in the state is to the tune of 9,329 million units and gas based power used to be 4,826 MU. The hydel generation this year, he said, was only 2,505 MU. When hydel generation was there it used to cost the utilities 80-85 paise per unit while now the generation cost has gone up to Rs 2.50 per unit. He said FSA was not a new concept. It was initiated in 2003-04 when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister. But the then government had put it on hold and did not bother to collect it. Whatever FSA is being levied is accumulated backlog which became necessary as the power generation situation deteriorated and the power units had to fall back on naphta and RLNG gas. He also denied that there has been discrimination in supply of gas to Telangana region. Kiran said 58% of power subsidy was being given to the T region. Of the total subsidy of Rs 22,220 crore Telangana alone gets Rs 12,975 crore. This had become necessary as the region has 18 lakh pump sets as against 7 lakh pump sets in Rayalaseema and 6 lakh pump sets in coastal Andhra region.