BANGALORE: The government on Monday announced a House committee probe into alleged irregularities in power purchase deals from 2005-06 till now.
Bowing to vociferous demands from JD(S) members in the Assembly, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar announced the decision just before the House was adjourned sine die.
Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had demanded a probe into the deals a few days ago in the House. He had alleged that the previous BJP government had spent a whopping `17,480 crore on purchasing power from private producers during its five-year term.
In 2013-14 alone, `3,191 crore was spent for the purpose.
He had questioned the rationale of going for short and medium term power purchase agreements by paying high tariff instead of cheaper long term agreements.
JD(S) members had staged strong protests in the House for the last two days refusing to allow any proceedings unless their demand for probes into the deals and encroachment of lakes in Bangalore was accepted.
However, the government rejected the demand for a probe into the encroachment of lakes.