Telangana TDP working President and legislator A Revanth Reddy today demanded a public hearing inviting all political parties, consumer organizations and experts to deliberate on the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) entered between Chattisgarh State Power Distribution Company and Telangana State, and come to a considered decision in the interest of the electricity consumers.
In a letter to the chairman of Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC), Revanth Reddy found fault in calling for comments, objections and suggestions online on the PPAs between the two state governments. This attempt itself highlights the dubious effort of the TSERC to manipulate the process of public hearing, he said.
“It is nothing but mockery to place the issue in public domain just by asking suggestions and comments online while you are mandated to conduct a public hearing while finalizing PPAs”, he said adding that the convention and the requirement was to conduct a public enquiry and hearing after revealing the whole gamut of issues involved in the PPAs to have reasoned and considered feedback from the public.
Revanth further said that the PPAs were pushed as Government –tp-Government contract while the fact remains that the rel power supplier is a private power company whose cost of establishment had reportedly increased by more than Rs.2,000 crore resulting in avoidable price escalation to the consumers in Telangana. Second, the grid is expected to be completed not earlier than in 2018 and even then the quota allotted to Telangana will not be 1000 MW. The Wardha-Maheswaram or even Angur-Palasa transmission lines are not in place and their dates of completion were not determined till today, he added. (NSS)