BHUBANESWAR: Former union minister and senior Congress leader Srikant Jena on Sunday demanded a CBI probe into the total mess in the power sector of the State.
Despite Odisha going for power sector reforms way back in 1999, the transmission and distribution (T&D) loss at 14 per cent remains one of the highest in the country, Jena said at a press conference here. Alleging that such a high T&D loss is theft of power, he said some heavy power consuming companies and the State Government are directly involved in the scam.
Stating that the State Government is neglecting the farmers and favouring some private companies, the former union minister demanded free power for the community. Besides, the BPL families should be given free power up to 200 units, he said.
The former union minister said the Punjab Government is providing free electricity to the farmers for the last 30 years, subsidy for which runs into `10,000 crore per year. Besides, the Andhra Pradesh Government also provides free power to the farmers with an annual subsidy of `5000 crore.