Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao accused his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Nara Chandrababu Naidu of creating the energy crisis in Telangana.
Intervening in the discussion on the issue in the State Legislative Assembly, KCR alleged that Telangana was being denied its share of about 980 MW of power by Andhra Pradesh. He also condemned the AP Chief Minister for illegal cancellation of PPAs.
He said that the Telangana Government held investments of Rs 550 crores in the power projects of Andhra Pradesh.
He also accused Naidu of pressurising the Centre to stop power generation at the Srisailam project.
The Chief Minister said that the Centre had constituted the Neeraja Mathur Committee to study the issue, and the committee had supported the Telangana Government's stand. However, Naidu had been delaying the implementation of the committee's recommendations.
He accused the earlier regimes of ignoring power projects in Telangana. He said that the Mangusura, Ramagundem and Sattupalli thermal projects were shelved by the previous governments.
He said that ideally Telangana should have had a generation of 8,900 MW from 1966 to 2014. However, it was still facing a shortage, and therefore had to depend on other States to meet its power requirements.
KCR reiterated that Telangana would generate 21,000 MW of power in the next years. That would include 1,200 MW from thermal plants near Singareni Colleries and 4,000 MW from NTPC.
The Chief Minister also denied allegations of him not approaching the Centre. He said that he had sought permission from the Prime Minister's Office to take an all-party delegation there, but could not get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He said that he would contact the PMO again after the Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in this regard. (INN)