AP Govt lying on power consumption: Rajya Sabha MP
AP owes Rs 4500 Cr to Mahanadi, Singareni coal fields
AMARAVATI: TDP Rajya Sabha MP Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar on Monday expressed concern that the Andhra Pradesh coal crisis was created only after the Jaganmohan Reddy Government stopped making payments to the coal producing companies.
Ravindra Kumar said that in order to cover its misdeeds and failures, the Government was trying to pass on the blame to the TDP. Like in many other sectors, the ruling YSRCP created a deep crisis in the power sector only to hold the previous TDP rule for the same. The Jagan regime should come out with a white paper if it had any credibility and courage to face the public.
Addressing a press conference here, the TDP MP accused the Government of telling lies that the power consumption has increased in the State. But the fact was that there was 63,311 million units consumption in 2018-`19 as against just 59,911 mu in 2020-`21. Power crisis was created in AP only to help Jagan Reddy and his relatives’ benami power companies to sell power to the State at very high cost.
Ravindra Kumar said that the Jagan Government was wrongly saying that thermal power generation came down due to lack of coal stocks and also supply from the Centre. This was why power was being bought from outside. Whereas, Union Energy Secretary wrote a letter to AP Energy Secretary Nagulapalli Srikant on September 2 this year. In that, the State was asked to pay all dues to coal suppliers and also increase coal stocks. The Centre also suggested not to import coal from outside.
The TDP MP demanded the AP Government to explain why it did not make payments to coal producers despite the Centre’s letter. It was only because of AP’s deliberate lapses that thermal power generation came to a standstill. Artificial power scarcity was created only to make the State buy power from Sandur Power of which Jagan Reddy’s wife Bharati was a director. Jagan and his relatives’ companies were producing over 5,000 MW power. Plans were afoot to increase their profits.
Ravindra Kumar said that the AP State owed Rs. 4,500 Cr to Singareni and Mahanadi coal fields. How can AP get new coal stocks without making these payments? On the other hand, the AP Government was not paying Rs. 22,000 Cr dues to the electricity companies. Another Rs. 12,000 Cr burden was placed on the public in the form of current charges which were hiked over six times. The Jagan rule was not in the nature of publishing white papers on either financial or power crises.
The TDP MP condemned that over Rs. 6,000 Cr out of the total Rs. 25,000 Cr loans of APPCL were diverted to the ruling party corruption schemes. When this was questioned, false cases were being filed on the opposition leaders and the general public. Can the Government give statistics over the last few years if power consumption increased by 20 percent as per its claims? Power scarcity was clearly created because of the Chief Minister’s greed but not because of increased consumption.
Ravindra Kumar said that it was CM’s Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy who has asked people to reduce consumption since there were power cuts. But the Government was saying that there were no power cuts. Also, it was threatening to file cases if the people questioned it. The YSRCP was looting the power sector just like it has been plundering sand, liquor and other sectors in the State already.
