The Hindu : Power Minister ridicules Congress claim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Power Minister ridicules Congress claim

By Our Staff Reporter

SUDDAPALLI (NIZAMABAD DT.), FEB 7. The Minister for Power, Kothapalli Subbarayudu, on Saturday ridiculed the repeated promise of providing free power to the farm sector by Congress leaders on the ground that it was impossible for any party to do so.

Mr. Subbarayudu was speaking after laying foundation stone for the 400 KV sub-station being taken up at a cost of Rs. 155 crores, on the outskirts of this village in Dichpalli constituency represented by the Minister for School Education, Mandava Venkateswara Rao. The Minister was accompanied by the Minister for Technical Education, Nerella Anjaneyulu, the former Minister, P.Srinivas Reddy, the former Government Whip, Syed Yusuf Ali, and the Transco Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Gopal Reddy.

The Power Minister appealed to people not to believe the words of Congress leaders and maintained that it was not possible at the present juncture to provide free power to the farm sector. He said it was the TDP Government that had brought about radical changes in the power sector. Comparing the performance of the previous Congress Governments to that of the TDP, Mr. Subbarayudu pointed out that while the Congress had set up 90 132 KV sub-stations in the State during the last 30 years, it was the TDP Government which had increased the tally by another 106 sub-stations within eight years.

As against 980 33/11 KV sub-stations set up by the Congress Government, the TDP went on to add 1,239 such sub-stations. He said while the total power generation in the last three decades of the Congress rule stood at 4,041 MW while it was 6,620 MW in the TDP regime covering eight years. The number of transformers set up by the TDP Government was 1.77 lakhs as against 1.07 lakhs by the Congress. He claimed credit for providing maximum number of 12 lakh agriculture pumpsets while comparing the statistics of the Congress.

The Minister said the transmission losses had come down to 24 per cent from 38 per cent. Referring to the power situation in Nizamabad district, he said about Rs. 250 crores would be spent by the Government in the coming few months to install new sub-stations and carry out repairs to the existing installations and set up new transformer to improve power supply.

The Minister for School Education credited the TDP Government with improving the power situation in the country. He said no Government had evinced so much interest in providing regular and quality power supply to the domestic and farm sectors. He said a large number of sub-stations and transformers had been set up by the Transco in the district. He pleaded with the Power Minister to provide power connections to schools, where the supply had been stopped for non-payment of outstanding dues. The Minister for Technical Education urged the Power Minister to sanction a 132 KV sub-station in the Yellareddy Assembly constituency. He thanked the Minister for laying foundation for a 132 KV sub-station in Lingampet. The former Nizamabad MP, Gaddam Ganga Reddy, hoped that the construction of the 400 KV sub-stations would improve the power situation in Nizamabad, Adilabad and Medak districts.

The former Minister, Srinivas Reddy, and Syed Yusuf Ali appealed to the Minister to sanction new 132 KV sub-stations for Kamareddy and Banswada constituencies to ease the power supply position. Mr. Srinivas Reddy complained that the Transco staff were harassing consumers and forcibly collecting outstanding dues. The Minister responding to the complaint advised the staff to be courteous.

Among others, the former Kamareddy MLA, Gampa Goverdhan, former Nizamabad MLA, Satish Pawar, DCCB chief, V.G.Goud, NCSF chairman, V.Mohan Reddy, Grandhalaya Samstha chairman, Akula Shankar, and Dichpalli MPP President, Kancheti Gangadhar, were present.

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