The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rosaiah blames it on `constraints'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 12, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rosaiah blames it on `constraints'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 11. Seeking to counter the criticism that the Congress Government has gone back on its promise of free power to single-bulb households, the Finance Minister, K. Rosaiah, who is also in charge of energy, has attributed the harsh political and media reaction to `communication gap.' He maintained that the Government had not deviated from the election promise.

Constraints

The Minister admitted that the Congress election manifesto had promised free power benefit to single-bulb households as "a general principle." But certain constraints were encountered in the implementation stage.

Mr. Rosaiah said the Congress did fulfil election promises like free power supply costing the exchequer Rs. 436 crores yearly, waiver of power bill arrears for farmers (Rs. 1,301 crores) and fuel surcharge adjustment covering all consumers whose monthly consumption was below 50 units (Rs. 9 crores).

No data

Mr. Rosaiah said the plan was to cover all one-bulb households initially but data was not available. A rough estimate put the number of beneficiaries at only three lakhs. Then, a monthly bill below Rs. 25 was fixed as the criterion. As a result, 13.92 lakh households came under its purview, he said.

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