HYDERABAD: Telangana Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy on Thursday alleged that some top leaders at the Centre were threatening power companies not to sell power to the state, whose daily demand crossed 14,000 MW.
Speaking to reporters in Suryapet, the Energy Minister recalled that the peak demand of Telangana touched 14,160 MW on March 29. When the demand for power was high, any state would try to buy power. Telangana too was trying to do so. But, some leaders at the Centre were making phone calls to various power companies and threatening them not to sell power to Telangana, Jagadish Reddy alleged. "The Centre is conspiring against Telangana. By threatening companies not to supply power to Telangana, the Centre is not only doing harm to state, but also to the entire country," Jagadish Reddy alleged.
The Energy Minister also alleged that the Centre also directed financial institutions like Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) not to release loans to Telangana power projects.
"We have taken up various augmentation programmes like setting up of new sub-stations, transformers and LT and HT lines with an estimated cost of around Rs 35,000 crore. The augmentation of power sector is planned in order to provide power without an interruption to all consumers, even if the demand touched a whopping 17,000 MW. But, the Centre wanted PFC and REC not to release the amounts. The financial institutions are not releasing the money, even though the state had already entered into an agreement with them for loans," Jagadish Reddy alleged.
He, however, said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would take all the steps to protect the farmers and other consumers and face the "conspiracies" of the Centre boldly. The TRS government would protect the farmers and other consumers, he said.