Lack of vision pushed power utilities into darkness of debts: Bhatti Vikramarka

Describing Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA T. Harish Rao’s claims that the State’s power companies had assets of ₹1.37 lakh crore as misleading, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka said that total value of the assets did not exceed ₹1.01 lakh crore

Describing Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA and former Minister T. Harish Rao’s claims that the State’s power companies had assets of ₹1.37 lakh crore as misleading, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka on December 21 said in the Assembly that total value of the assets did not exceed ₹1.01 lakh crore.

Also read: Two terms of BRS govt. reflected financial anarchy; says Bhatti

During the discussion in the Assembly over the White Paper on Power Sector tabled by the Government, the Deputy CM said the facts brought to fore the hollowness of previous BRS Government’s claims. He said the BRS Government never gave power for 24 hours. Though the BRS asked people during election campaign if they wanted power or Congress rule, the public mandate was in favour of the latter, he pointed out.

Mr. Vikramarka said a judicial inquiry would be launched into the construction of Yadadri and Bhadradri thermal power plants and the agreement to purchase power from Chhattisgarh. The delay in completion of Bhadradri power project escalated the cost of one mega watt power from ₹6.75 crore to ₹9.74 crore.

He said that new power generation plants became a reality due to the reforms introduced in power sector by the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government led by Manmohan Singh of Congress party two decades ago. The reforms also created an eco-system of purchasing and supplying power from distant places. The BRS Government should have prepared infrastructure and plans to meet the future power demands from the present power demand of 15,500 mega watts.

By failing to secure power from Chhattisgarh which was available at a cheaper cost of ₹3.90 per unit, the previous Government imposed huge monetary burden on the people. By building Yadadri power plant at Veerlapalem where coal was not available, the cost of power production increased considerably due to expenditure in transportation of coal.

Failure to complete the project on time, enhanced the cost of the project by at least ₹10,000 crore. While the initial estimate of the project was put at ₹25,099 crore, it went upto ₹34,543 crore in eight years, Mr. Vikramarka said.