BRS scared of PPA probe: CM Revanth

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday charged the BRS party of trying to mislead the people and project themselves as descendants of Satya Harishchandra, a king who is known for upholding truth.

Intervening in a debate on the irregularities and corruption in power purchase projects, Revanth Reddy said the BRS members have been opposing the probe in the power purchase agreements because they fear that their “loot” would be exposed.

He said the pink party never gets tired of claiming that they pulled the state out of darkness and proved the last chief minister of the undivided Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy wrong that if the state was bifurcated it would plunge into darkness. But the fact is that it was the decision of the then UPA government which had saved the state. The CM said that during the bifurcation of the State there was a provision which said power projects should be given based on the consumptions in the state, which meant Telangana could get 36 per cent and AP could get 64 per cent power.

Because of the efforts of Congress MPs like Ponnam Prabhakar and others, former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy brought changes and the share of Telangana increased to 54 per cent.

The Chief Minister credited the betterment of power supply in Greater Hyderabad to former chief ministers like N Chandrababu Naidu and YS Rajasekhara Reddy. He said that both had ensured uninterrupted power supply to get investment in the IT corridor and because of these steps Hyderabad could become a world class city.

The CM further said that the BRS has also been giving wrong information about solar power production. The solar power production is just one MW while the remaining was by private companies. Similarly, the present government smelled a rat in the tenders given to BHEL. He said the tenders were given on nomination basis claiming that the power plant would be ready in 30 months. But it was not ready even after more than eight years of delay and this resulted in a huge scam. It was pointed out that the BHEL had quoted 18% less for power projects in Jharkhand.

But here to bail out a Gujarat-based company India Bulls, the BRS government made BHEL buy equipment worth Rs 1,000 crore resulting in a loss of Rs 18,000 crore to the state exchequer.

It was at this point that the BRS wanted a probe to be ordered into it. But once the probe began, they knocked on the doors of the apex court. The apex court turned down their demand for scrapping of the commission and said if they have reservations about the chairman he should be changed and that was being done.

BRS has no moral right to claim that they were honest to the core, he added.