Power Minister Gottipati Ravi Kumar said that his government is working as per the alliance’s promise before the elections that it would reduce electricity charges if it comes to power. He deplored that the Jaganmohan Reddy government has imposed a burden on the people with electricity, and the coalition government is reducing that burden.
He said that they are reducing 13 paise on each unit from November and will make it no more burden in the coming days. He said that “The Jagan government has increased current charges 9 times. By the time the Telugu Desam government stepped down in 2019, Chandrababu had made it a surplus power state. But after Jagan came, he destroyed the power system in 5 years. He pushed debts of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore into a quagmire”.
He accused that Jagan destroyed the Genco and Transco systems during his 5 years as CM. Even though there was an opportunity to generate electricity in VTPS and Krishnapatnam, he ignored it. They spent a lot of money and purchased electricity from outside states, he added.
The Minister recalled that before 2019, AP was ahead in renewable energy. “We generated 7 to 9 thousand megawatts of electricity. But after Jagan came to power, the PPAs were canceled due to factional gains. Since the contracted electricity was not used, Rs. 9,000 crores had to be paid to those companies. All that burden fell on the people”, he said.
He deplored that they did not even utilize the subsidy schemes provided by the center. “We have supplied coal to VTPS and brought it into use to produce quality electricity at 70 percent. We will try to generate electricity at 90 percent. We will also bring the plants in Krishnapatnam and Kadapa into use. CM Chandrababu’s goal is to reduce electricity purchase. We have reduced the short-term electricity purchase from above 17 percent in the previous government to 6.8 percent”, he added.
“We are taking power from Rajasthan and Haryana states only when necessary through the swapping system. CM Chandrababu has immense experience in the electricity sector. “CM Chandrababu is the first person to bring reforms in the country,” said Gottipati Ravi Kumar.
