Andhra Pradesh   

Congress' free power promise impractical: TDP

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 27 . Telugu Desam leaders have said the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, D. Srinivas' proposal to provide free power only to farmers of the upland areas has proved their repeated assertion that the Congress has been making impractical promises with an eye on elections.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, C. Ramachandraiah, MP, and S. Chandramohan Reddy, Minister for Information and Public Relations, contended that Congress leaders were speaking in different voices on the issue having realised that free power assurance could not be implemented. "They have no clarity or unanimity on the issue. The party is bankrupt not only in leadership but also in ideology," they observed.

Substantiating their claim that supply of free power was not feasible, the TDP leaders wondered why the Congress had not implemented the scheme in Chattisgarh which was a power-surplus State. It had promised to implement it in Punjab and went back on its assurance within four months of coming to power. Ms. Sonia Gandhi, during the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session at Guwahati, herself had advised the party leaders not to make populist promises. They also recalled the statement made by the Congress MP, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, that power sector should not be politicised.

Daring the Congress to declare a policy in favour of free power at the national level, they accused Congress leaders in the State of being shortsighted and trying to mislead people in their desperate bid to come to power. They also refuted the Congress leaders' charge that the State Government was spending Rs.300 crores on publicity and said that the budget for Information and Public Relations Department was only Rs.45 crores. The power tariff also was lowest in Andhra Pradesh as compared to Congress-ruled and other States.

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