Hyderabad, April 04: Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya has demanded that chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy convene an allparty meeting and release a white paper on power tariff hike and power generation in the state.
Addressing a press conference at the state BJP headquarters here today, the BJP leader strongly resented the power tariff hike by describing it as an undemocratic decision of the Congress government.
He accused Kiran Kumar Reddy of following in the footsteps of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu by imposing additional financial burden on all categories of power consumers.
The BJP leader alleged that the Congress government neglected the power sector in recent years. The government failed to increase power generation during the last three years though the demand rose steeply.
He also criticised the state government for encouraging private power companies at the cost of public sector APGenco. “All private power companies are owned by ruling Congress MPs. Because of this the state government is neglecting the development of APGenco,” the BJP leader said.
In Nellore district alone, the government had given permission for setting up 27 power units in a 30 km radius. “The state government has to release Rs 9,000 crore subsidy to the power companies. For 201112, the government allocated Rs 6,045 crore only in the budget for power sector. The allocation is inadequate to clear the dues, he sad.
Dattatreya demanded that Union petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy should allocate natural gas for power generation in the state.
The chief minister should take up the issue with the Centre for a fair share for the state in allocation of natural gas explored from the KrishnaGodavari basin, he said.
BJP Kisan Morcha national secretary K Sugunakar Rao was also present at the press conference.
—Agencies