Power tariff : Kollu Ravindra accuses AP government of looting people

Machilipatnam: TDP politburo member and former minister Kollu Ravindra alleged that the state government was purchasing the power from private companies by paying Rs 16 per unit and looting the consumers by passing the burden onto them. He said Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been killing the power generation in the state for commissions.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he accused the government of debilitating public sector power projects which would have produced the power at a cost of Rs 4.75 per unit and bought single unit at a cost or Rs 16 from private generators.

He said the state government was collecting additional charges from consumers in the name of fuel adjustment charges which were consumed between 2014 and 2019. During the YSRCP rule, the state government implemented power cuts and on the other hand, slapped hefty power bills on the people.

Ravindra said N Chandrababu Naidu turned the state a power surplus one though the state had a 22 million unit power shortage when he came to power in 2014. He also reminded that the TDP government had not increased power charges during its rule. He also reminded that TDP had increased installed capacity from 9,000 to 19,000 mw, which helped to supply uninterrupted power to the consumers. In contrast, the YSRCP government has not created a single MW capacity during its four years of rule, he said. “YSRCP has come to power assuring the people that it will not increase power tariff. But the government imposed Rs 18,093 crore burden on consumers after being voted to power. Due to purchasing low-quality coal, thermal power centres in the state have been facing technical problems often,” he said.

The TDP leader demanded the state government to withdraw the additional electricity and true up charges and supply power 24x7 to the consumers. Machilipatnam municipality former chairman Venkata Baba Prasad and other leaders were present.