HYDERABAD: In a renewed offensive against the TRS government, BJP State president K Laxman on Thursday urged the Centre to order an inquiry by a sitting judge into corruption that had allegedly taken place while power purchase agreements (PPAs) were signed with power producers by the Telangana government.“The chief minister of Telangana preferred purchasing thermal power at the rate of Rs 5.50 per unit when solar power was available at the rate of Rs 4.30 per unit. This is because in the purchase of thermal power, a lot of money could be made in the form of kickbacks,” Laxman said.
The BJP leader said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, to cover mismanagement of power sector, is now advocating that a comprehensive national power policy should be evolved. In fact, such a policy is already in force, the BJP leader said and pointed out that Chandrasekhar Rao is making a plea for a fresh national policy only to divert the attention of the people from his failure.
Laxman alleged that under KCR’s dispensation, power utilities are running in losses of about Rs 20,000 crore. The State has to pay up about Rs 10,000 crore to power producers from whom it had purchased power. “KCR had not added even one megawatt of capacity since 2014 and always preferred to purchase power from outside as there is a lot of money to be made in these deals,” he said.
Mountain of debt
Laxman said that though the Centre had advised the State to go in for a supercritical thermal power station, the State had preferred a subcritical power station and had an agreement, with IndiaBulls, but so far the plant is not in place. Even if it is, it would end up as a white elephant, he claimed.
He said that CARE had downgraded credit rating for Telangana for lending for power, all because of the mess in the power sector. The BJP leader took exception to KCR warning sarpanches and panchayat secretaries that he would sack them if they did not pay power bills and wondered whether the same rule applies to him also.“The State is sitting on a mountain of debt payable to the power producers. Does it mean that KCR too should be sacked?” he asked.