2,394-cr to help ease power demand

Hyderabad: Minister for Power J Jagadish Reddy informed legislators that the government had invested Rs 2,394 crore for meeting the expected demand of 9500 MW for this Rabi season. During the short discussion on ‘Power situation in the State’ in the Legislative Council on Friday, the Minister said that since the State grid had already met the peak demand of 8284 MW on September 9, it was poised to meet Rabi demand and help improve agricultural productivity by strengthening utilities like the Transmission and Distribution System.

The Government was already extending Rs 4584.50 crore as subsidy to the power sector for providing free power to agriculture sector and other subsidised categories. “In all, 987 Assistant Engineers have been recruited by power utilities in a transparent manner. The Chief Minister has agreed for absorbing the outsourced personnel working in the utilities,” he said.

The Minister pointed out that in the past farmers used to agitate for replacement of transformers, delays and loss of crops. Now, transformers were being replaced within six hours in urban areas and 24 hours in rural areas. Transformer failures had also been brought down to less than 10 % from 30 % and above through proper maintenance, he added.

Leader of Opposition Mohammed Ali Shabbir asked the government to avoid credit from funding agencies as it could instead avail of funds from the Centre in the form of ‘grants’. He said that the government could avoid placing burden on households, if it could pursue the matter with the Union government. “The power charges have already been hiked twice after the formation of Telangana and the DISCOMs are gearing up for third a hike,” he observed.