CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to impose a ban on trading of power received from the Central Unallocated Pool (CUP). He called on the Prime Minister in New Delhi to apprise him of the shortage of power being faced by Haryana.

According to an official spokesman here, Mr. Hooda pointed out that the power surplus States, particularly in the eastern region, were receiving power from Central Projects as well as CUP and selling the surplus power through traders at exorbitant rates. Mr.Hooda pleaded that there should be a ceiling on the margins for selling power received at low rates from the Central Projects.

He said that in Haryana only 1,500 MW generation capacity had been created in the last 39 years. Even NTPC had only a gas-based 432 MW plant in the State. "Even with the share from the Central Projects located outside the State, we are perennially short of power,'' he added. About NTPC's proposal to put up another 432 MW plant at Faridabad, he said it should be included in the 11th Plan by making gas available for it.

The Chief Minister said Haryana had 20 per cent share in the Indraprastha Power Plant in Delhi which had a rated capacity of 300 MW. But this was an old plant which produced less than 200 MW. NTPC proposed to scrap this plant and put up a 1,000 MW coal-based plant exclusively for Delhi and thus, Haryana would be losing whatever little power it was getting from this plant.

Mr.Hooda said that NTPC was finding it difficult to get land for the proposed plant in Delhi and the way out was to locate this plant in Haryana and the power should be shared equally between Haryana and Delhi. A 4X700 MW nuclear power plant for Haryana had been under consideration for quite some time; the site had been identified and the State Government had confirmed the availability of water for the project. Mr. Hooda said that due to uncertainty over fossil fuels, this project should be speeded up for sustained prosperity of Haryana.

Mr.Hooda also urged Dr. Manmohan Singh to include the damage to crops due to severe cold under the list of natural calamities and an immediate relief of Rs.178.18 crores be given to Haryana for providing compensation to the mustard- growing farmers in the State. He said that massive damage had been caused to the entire mustard crop by a severe cold wave in the State. An area of nearly 10 lakh acres was affected and yield losses had been estimated in the range of 25-100 per cent. He said that the area in which the crop had been completely damaged and crop failure was complete was estimated to be 3,70,000 acres. Mustard was the main rabi oilseed crop of the State and was mainly cultivated in Southern Haryana. He said that 70 per cent of the land holding belonged to small and marginal farmers.

While referring to the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) recently announced by the Central Government, Mr. Hooda said that the Centre should fix remunerative MSP for all agricultural commodities in order to safeguard the interests of farmers. "However, the MSP was announced in disregard of the recommendation of the State Government. Of late it had begun to fall short of even the cost of production. Moreover, the clubbing of MSP of Fine and Superfine varieties of paddy had worked to the disadvantage of the farmers of Haryana."

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