Power sector ruined during Jagan's rule, says Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati, July  (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday alleged that the entire power sector in the state was totally ruined by the "inefficient and arrogant rule" of his predecessor Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Releasing the white paper on the power sector, the Chief Minister claimed that the state suffered a loss of a whopping Rs 1,29,503 crore with the wrong decisions taken by Jagan Mohan Reddy.

"The YSRCP government has imposed a huge burden of Rs 32,166 crore on the power consumers in the past five years in the shape of novel charges like true-up and true-up fuel," he said.

Regretting that there was no additional generation of power and not even a single project was completed in these five years, the Chief Minister said the more the government was going into a deep study of the issues, the more failures of the previous government were coming to light. He recalled that after the bifurcation of the state in 2014, the then-TDP regime could overcome the 22.5 million units power deficit and supplied quality power to the consumers for a full five years, till 2019.

"As the Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh, I have introduced several reforms in the power sector which were later shown the way for the whole nation. Of course, with these reforms in the power sector, we lost power. But I am happy that I have laid the foundation for a better change," he said.

Declaring that a review will soon be conducted on the agreements reached by the previous government with various organisations, Naidu made it clear that there will be no power cuts any longer and quality power will be supplied to the consumers. He said that the lives of the people are totally linked with power and the more efficiently this is utilised the more benefits they get.

Recalling how efficiently power was supplied when the TDP was in power earlier in both the combined Andhra Pradesh and after the state bifurcation by the 145 awards they received, the Chief Minister felt that the entire sector was totally destroyed during the YSRCP rule.

"Are the leaders who completely damaged the systems eligible to be in power and do such people need people's support," he asked. Stating that the financial condition of the state is very bad and there are no funds in the exchequer, he said that during his recent New Delhi visit also, he sought the cooperation of the Union Ministers and the Centre.