The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Rosaiah admits haste in free power decision

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Saturday, Jan 22, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Rosaiah admits haste in free power decision

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 21. The Finance Minister, K. Rosaiah, said here on Friday that the Congress did not realise the implications of free power supply while promising the benefit. He felt that the party should have studied the issue in greater depth before making the announcement.

Speaking at the inaugural function of `Save Energy-2005' exhibition organised by the Energy Conservation Mission and Institution of Engineers (India) at Visvesvaraya Bhavan, the Minister said the Government should have incorporated a clause in the free power policy to extend the benefit only to those using ISI-marked pumpsets.

Mr. Rosaiah said plans were drawn to spend Rs. 5,000 crores in the next three to four years to ensure high voltage supply to consumers and thus further reduce the transmission & distribution losses. He regretted that politicians wrongly included Andhra Pradesh in the `low performance States' while talking about T & D losses.

D. J. Ramesh, Chairman, Vijai Electricals, sought a legislation to prevent farmers from using sub-standard pumpsets which increased T & D losses. The State suffered a loss of Rs. 30,000 crores annually during the last 10-15 years on account of T & D losses and it came down to Rs. 17,000-20,000 crores recently following strengthening of the network.

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