HYDERABAD: The Telangana government is mulling legal options against the Centre’s directive to the State to pay power dues of Rs 6,756.92 crore to Andhra Pradesh.
Describing the Centre’s order as ‘politically motivated’ and ‘absurd’, Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy on Tuesday told reporters in Suryapet that the government would fight legally against the directive. The Energy Minister alleged that the Center has conspired against Telangana’s power sector and was trying to push the State towards power cuts and darkness.
“Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao gave suggestions to the Centre on how to give free power to all consumers in the country, which it was unable to digest,” Jagadish Reddy said.
He said that the Chief Minister would expose the Centre’s vindictive attitude across the country. “The fact is that Telangana is due Rs 12,941 crore from AP Genco, but the Centre is not taking this into account,” he said.
Jagadish Reddy alleged that the Centre has been creating troubles in the way of Telangana’s power sector for the last year. “As the Chief Minister is questioning the failures of the BJP-led Union government, the Centre has targeted the State,” he said.
Meanwhile, addressing a meeting in Hyderabad, Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao alleged that the Centre has hatched a conspiracy to stop NREGS works in the State. “Telangana is No. 1 in the country in implementing NREGS works. However, the Centre is trying to stall the works in the name of inspections. The Centre stopped the NREGS works in West Bengal six months ago.
The Centre sent inspection teams to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Punjab,” Dayakar Rao recalled. He said that the Centre had sent only three teams to Telangana between 2014 and 2018, but this year alone, it sent 18 teams. “The Centre wanted the States not to take up desilting of tanks with NREGS works. But, such works were just 11 per cent in the state, whereas it was 19 per cent in Andhra Pradesh,” Dayakar Rao pointed out.