HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has made it clear that additional burden on account of power purchases from outside sources at a heavy cost will not be placed on consumers.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, he also clarified that free power to agriculture would be continued at any cost but limited to seven hours a day. He admitted that a heavy power cut of 8-10 hours was imposed on villages and almost similarly for towns, to ensure supply to agricultural pumpsets.

Dr Reddy defended the heavy cut on villages, reasoning that uninterrupted supply of electricity would serve no purpose in villages.

Restrictions would be imposed on illumination in urban areas and Government offices to save power for agriculture.

Additional funds

He said the Government would release Rs 1,150 crores in addition to the subsidy of Rs 1,350 crores already announced for this year, to enable AP Transco to absorb the additional burden due to purchases at heavy prices. The expenditure made on additional power purchases for December was Rs. 90 crores and this would be Rs 300 crores each for the next three months.

With this, the subsidy allowed to farmers would reach a peak of Rs 4,000 crores. This implied a subsidy of Rs 10,000 on each pumpset. "Now where in the world such heavy subsidy be allowed for agriculture."

On the challenge thrown by TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao to accompany him to any sub-station of his choice to notice how irregular the supply was, he said the supply, on the other hand, was "good. Let him go anywhere to verify this".

Another jolt

Meanwhile, the second units of Simhadri and Vijayawada power stations tripped on Monday, depriving the grid of 500 MW and 210 MW respectively during this crucial period.

This came as another jolt to the distribution system even as it was improving slightly following restoration of 435 MW at Kothagudem.

The previous total loss of 1,035 MW was reduced to 600 MW following restoration of three out of service units at Kothagudem.

But the figure touched 1,310 MW now following tripping of the two units at Simhadri and Vijayawada.

The AP Transco said the two units were expected to resume generation in a day or two.

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