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Hooda Govt.'s new thrust on reforms in power sector

Rajesh Ahuja

Power bill waiver scheme great success; action taken on long-pending projects

CHANDIGARH: The Congress Government in Haryana, which has completed six months, has given a new thrust to the power sector reforms.

According to political analysts, one of the biggest achievements of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been his initiative to solve two major problems at one stroke. For the last several years, the State faced a massive build-up of arrears of power bills in the rural sector as `out-of-power' politicians incited the farmers not to pay their bills as they would get free power once their party came into power.

But after the very same politicians assumed the reins of power, they conveniently forgot their promises and put "pressure'' on the farmers to pay their bills. This invariably led to a confrontation between the rulers and the farmers which culminated into violence during the tenures of Bansi Lal and Om Parkash Chautala. And the financial burden on the Power Utilities increased manifold.

Mr.Hooda announced a power bill waiver scheme for the rural sector under which power arrears worth Rs.1,600 crores of 12 lakh defaulters would be waived off provided they paid the current dues. It is a matter of record that the scheme has been a roaring success and the coffers of the Power Utilities have started filling up. It was a massive turn-around for the Congress as the Bhartiya Kisan Union, for the first time in the political history of Haryana, embraced the Congress whole-heartedly and the credit obviously goes to Mr.Hooda.

Even more significant is the fact that while earlier Chief Ministers only made announcements about setting up of new power projects which incidentally remained on paper, Mr.Hooda initiated action to set up long-pending power projects to generate nearly 3,000 Mega Watts of power in the next three years. Even his worst detractors admit that concrete action is being taken by the Congress Government to make Haryana self-sufficient in power.

According to sources close to Mr.Hooda one major factor why he is giving so much attention to the power sector is that massive investment from abroad and within the country can only be attracted once the power infrastructure is good. Also, initiatives are being taken to transform the National Capital Region by setting up Rajiv Gandhi Education City at Rai, food processing park near Rai and a petro-chemical hub in Panipat. Moreover, a state-of-the-art power infrastructure would help in building other vital infrastructures too.

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Hooda Govt.'s new thrust on reforms in power sector

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