NELLORE: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has made it clear that the Government is keen on closing down the 50-year-old Nellore Thermal Station (NTS) at Kovur, 6 km from Nellore, for reasons of what he describes as `non-viability'.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the Chief Minister said that the NTS has become old and accordingly it has to cease functioning.

He, however, said that there would be no retrenchment of staff and all of them would be accommodated in other thermal stations like Muddanur.

To compensate the proposed closure of NTS, a 1,600 MW thermal station would come up at Krishnapatnam near Nellore town.

The process of land acquisition for the new thermal power station at Krishnapatnam is yet to pickup momentum.

RTC stir

About the stalemate in RTC, the Chief Minister, claimed that the Government had done what all it could for resurrecting the organisation by drawing up a Rs.500-crore package.

Also, it had lowered taxation to a level of Rs.181 crores and considering how far the Government could compensate free passes to various sections, which amounted to Rs. 340 crores.

Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy wanted to know whether any Government had given so many concessions to the RTC ever since its inception.

"Even after all these measures, if the unions want to go on strike, what can I do?"

Gurgaon incident

Asked whether the Government is taking any measures to safeguard Andhra workers who are said to be facing severe hardship in Gurgaon, due to the prevailing unrest in Honda Motor Cycle Company, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy, said that the Andhra Bhavan at New Delhi had been asked to be in contact with the affected workers.

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