HYDERABAD: Two senior Congress leaders -- G. Venkataswamy and V. Hanumantha Rao -- both MPs, have joined the chorus of the Opposition parties on Thursday in finding fault with the Government for the erratic power supply which has been causing misery to farmers.

Mr. Venkataswamy, who is also Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, has asked the Government to supply sufficient power and save standing crops. The Congress party has fared badly in the Telangana region in the recent Zilla Parishad elections due to erratic power supply, he says and points out that the Government has failed to fulfil its poll promise to waive power arrears for SC and ST colonies in the State.

Worst drought

Mr. V. Hanumantha Rao told reporters on Thursday that farmers, who had wholeheartedly backed the Congress party in the Assembly elections, were facing the worst drought and their woes were compounded by frequent power cuts.

The situation was worsening and irate farmers were storming electricity sub stations and detaining APTransco officials. He justified the Opposition parties' criticism about the power cuts and said the Congress leaders did the same when the TDP was in office.

CPI(M) floor leader N. Narasimhaiah sought a white paper citing the causes for the sudden shortage of nearly 2,000 MW of power in the State. He said it was strange that the Government, which went on record in the Assembly that there were no buyers for power, was now complaining about severe shortage.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on the other hand tried to put up a brave face saying that the Government was equally concerned about the power shortage. Congress MLAs -- G. Muddukrishnama Naidu and E. Pratap Reddy -- accused the Opposition parties of trying to provoke the farmers.

Mr. Naidu said the opposition parties knew that the shortage was caused by technical faults in thermal stations and was only trying to gain political mileage. Repairs to the turbines in thermal power stations were being taken up, he added.

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