TJAC dubs 24-hr power a publicity stunt
Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Monday alleged that the ‘24-hour power supply’ by the government was a publicity stunt to divert the attention of people from various pre-poll promises and issues faced by the farmers.
Hyderabad: Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) Chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Monday alleged that the ‘24-hour power supply’ by the government was a publicity stunt to divert the attention of people from various pre-poll promises and issues faced by the farmers.
He said it was hard to believe that the government, which failed on all fronts, had succeeded in the power sector and there is a need to know the truth behind this. Kodandaram said presently, most of the States in the country are power surplus and there is no consumer to purchase the power.
He said as per the Central Electricity Authority report of 2017-18, the States which have surplus power include Chandigarh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Sikkim, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Meghalaya. There are no power cuts in 19 States/Union Territories and the States like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Bihar have one to two per cent shortage. He further said during 2017-18, 27 States would not have power shortage.
Kodandaram said in 2018-19 the power needed would be 1229661 million units and the availability would be 1337828 million units. He said the farmers were not asking for 24-hour power supply, but all they want is nine-hour quality power supply. For 24-hour power supply, the government needs Rs 10,000 crore, but it was paying Rs 5,500 crore to the power utilities leading to losses.
The JAC Chairman alleged that the farmers were facing problems such as not receiving proper MSP, spurious seeds, non-availability of new loans. “Farmers are committing suicides even in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s constituency Gajwel, but no one is concentrating on them. Instead of solving the issues of farmers, publicity is given about power in newspapers,” Kodandaram said.
