BHUBANESWAR:Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday criticised the State Government for linking the State-III clearance of NTPC’s Talcher thermal power plant with costly power allocated to the State by the national thermal power major.
Requesting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik once again for according approval to NTPC’s `9,785 crore investment proposal for expansion of the Talcher Thermal Power Station, Pradhan said such conditionality will hit industrialisation in the State.
“The State Government should cooperate in setting up the Stage-III project of TTPS as both the State and the country will benefit out of it,” Dharmendra told reporters after his arrival from Delhi.
He said the State Government’s argument is not based on fact as it had signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with NTPC for allocation of power from its power plants including Barh-I , Barh-II and Muzaffarpur.
Responding to a query, Pradhan said the Chief Minister was never serious in curbing corruption. Accusing Naveen of presiding over one of the most corrupt governments, the Union Minister said he has been rewarding politicians whom he had punished either by dropping from his Cabinet or suspending from the party.
In a recent letter to the Chief Minister, Pradhan had sought personal intervention of the former for speedy approval of the project proposal of the NTPC by the State’s High Level Clearance Committee.
NTPC proposed to set up a new plant of 1320 mw in place of the existing 460 mw power plant which will be phased out by 2021.
Cut VAT to bring down petrol prices
The Union Minister reiterated his demand for reduction of VAT by the State Government to bring down the prices of petroleum products. He said the State’s tax collection from petroleum product has doubled since 2014-15. The Government should reduce the tax to provide relief to the consumers. Pradhan said decision has been taken to provide piped natural gas connection in Dhenkanal and Angul districts. “This will be a Laxmi Puja gift to the people of the two districts,” he added.