BENGALURU: Energy Minister Sunil Kumar on Friday hit out at the Congress over its promise of providing every household in the state with 200 units of free electricity every month if voted to power. He said the goal of the Congress through this is to privatise electricity supply companies (escoms).
Calling it a lie, a release from Sunil Kumar’s office alleged that when CLP leader Siddaramaiah was the chief minister, he pushed escoms towards bankruptcy and escoms had a debt of Rs 9,000 crore. Now, their poll promise will be a burden to the power utility companies, he said, adding that the Congress should not sell escoms for the sake of votes. The minister further blamed that the Congress failed to provide electricity to farmer pumpsets when in power.
“Now, the same party is promising free power... this is the biggest lie of the century,” he quipped. He said after Basavaraj Bommai became the CM, the government has paid Rs 18,000 crore to all the escoms.
Siddu hits back
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets said that the BS Yediyurappa government before 2013 had put the escoms to loss. “It is the Congress government which saved escoms. We had invested and not spent unnecessarily. Our government in 2013 to 2018 worked towards generating more power. We will work towards it and ensure 200 units of free power to people,” he added.