AP rebuts Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman's criticism of growth

Hyderabad: The Chief Advisor to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Ajeya Kallam, on Saturday brushed aside Union Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman's criticism of AP Government as an attempt to spread misinformation.

Seetharaman accused the AP Government of adopting detrimental policies of growth and denial of developmental benefits to the downtrodden.

Speaking to the media here on Saturday, Ajeya Kallam said Jagan Mohan Reddy's government brought a sea change in governance and had built firewalls against corruption through various measures from grassroot levels.

Terming the attack of Nirmala on "very high" power tariff in the State, Kallam said it was a figment of imagination. The tariff of Rs 7.65 per unit fixed for the industries was done by the previous TDP regime and not by the present government.

It was surprising that Nirmala chose to claim that the Centre was offering power at Rs 2.70 per unit. The NTPC was offering a unit at Rs 9.84 to AP and the State Government had no choice but to buy the same.

Thus the latter was spending Rs 5 lakh on one megawatt power. In addition, transmission charges were being levied on AP even though the neighbouring States were buying the power.

"Our pleas against the costly power supply are not heeded to and we are forced to buy the same," he said. AP was paying Rs 1, 700 crore alone on transmission charges to the Centre.

The State Government had not flouted any commitment so far on this count. Moreover, due to lack of allocation of coal mines, AP was again forced to pay about Rs 2,500 crore per annum in addition, he added.

Due to some irrational arrangements and agreements made by the previous State and Central Governments, AP was facing the crisis of steep prices.

The loans of the power companies amounted to Rs 24,800 crore in 2014 and the same had now grown to Rs 70,000 crore. Adding to the burden, the TDP government had left a Rs 40,000 crore burden on the Government in the form of pending bills. All this had a negative impact on the power tariff in the State, he said.

Referring to the 'governance', he said 80 per cent jobs were reserved for SCs, STs and BCs in the State and even in nominated posts, the Government gave a similar percentage to them.

Through reverse tendering Rs 2,072 crore were saved so far in the State, Ajeya Kallam added.