TRS, Congress lock horns over power situation in Telangana State

Hyderabad: In an attempt to take credit for the existing power situation, the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi crossed swords during a short discussion in the Council on Wednesday prior to the passage of resolution against Central government's proposed Electricity Amendment Bill, 2020.

Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy said that the State was now enjoying the power generated due to the infrastructure developed by earlier governments, particularly by the Congress government. He said that former Chief Minister Y Rajasekhara Reddy was the first to sign free power to farmers. To this, the Treasury benches objected and there was an uproar over the issue even as he continued.

Reddy noted that in contrast, the TRS government took some of the impractical decisions like coming up with Yadadri Thermal Power Plant, rather than developing the Ramagundam which was in subcritical level. "If the government had developed with the available 600 acres of land, it could have reached supercritical level. Despite land availability and proximity to coal mines, the government has decided set up power plant in another location which is distant from mines," he pointed out.

Without clarifying his support to the resolution, the Congress MLC felt that there should have been a detailed discussion as there were some serious issues like interference of Centre in regulatory authority and variation of the provision of generating renewable energy amongst States.

Even as the uproar continued, he lost his cool and blamed the TRS for supporting most of the Bills in Parliament akin to demonetisation that shook the economy. He said that even the Congress was in the forefront of opposing the decision to transfer seven mandals to Andhra Pradesh, which could have helped TS through Sileru project. He also blamed the government for the death of engineers and other staff in Srisailam power project accident.

During his response, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy said that the State was enjoying unhindered power supply only because of the visionary leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. "If the Congress was behind the success story, why is it that Congress-ruled States in northern India failed to show the same?" he questioned.

The Minister recalled that the earlier State governments, Congress and Telugu Desam, were busy in the blame game as protests over power situation and farmers' suicide was the norm then. "One leader would protest holding a lantern and others would hold dried up corn. "Rajasekhar Reddy only signed but did not provide power. If he had done so, there would not have been so many suicides," he added.