Speaking in the Assembly, KCR said that the proposed power reforms bill would be detrimental to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the proposed Electricity (Amendments) Bill 2022 claiming that it would affect the interests of the farming community and the poor people in the country.
The Chief Minister cautioned that if the Centre failed to heed to the requests of the States, it would face a revolution from the people of the country.
Taking part in a discussion on the Centre's power reforms in the Assembly on Monday, KCR said that the proposed power reforms bill would be detrimental to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) families and was not suitable for the poor in the country.
"Telangana overcame its power shortage within five-and-a-half months by implementing effective measures. Telangana is now the only State in the country to implement 24x7 power supply to all the sectors, including agriculture, in the country. The BJP government at the Centre and the TRS government in the State came to power at the same period. But the union government has failed miserably to provide quality power to all segments while the TRS government has been succeeding in this regard. The union government should look into how this happened and learn from that, rather than bring in suffocating laws," KCR said.
The Chief Minister alleged that the Modi government had failed to make optimum utilisation of the available power due to its bad policies and inefficiency.
"The national installed power capacity is 4.04 lakh MW, with a base load (firm power) of 2.42 lakh MW. However, the country recorded a highest peak load of 2.1 lakh MW on June 22 this year. This is less than our base load. Apart from optimum utilisation of the base load, we can immediately use at least 1.65 lakh MW in addition," he explained.
"Also, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), during the last eight years, Telangana's per capita power consumption increased from 970 units in 2014 to 2,126 units in 2022. In contrast, the national per capita power consumption increased from 957 units in 2014 to only 1,255 units, including Telangana's consumption, in 2022. It shows that how the Centre is dealing with the power sector," KCR added.
The Chief Minister also strongly objected to the Centre passing several bills in Parliament on subjects like power, which were in the concurrent list, without consulting the States.
"I am surprised as to why the Union government has been insisting that the Telangana government withdraw the provision of free power supply to the agriculture sector when a large number of farmers are benefiting from the facility," he added.
The CM also found fault with BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao for "misleading the House citing wrong references" in his statement. The CM read out from the latest gazette published by the Centre where the latter said, "No connections shall be given without a meter, and such a meter shall be smart prepayment meter."
"Upon implementation of the bill, about 98 lakh families will be affected in Telangana alone. Not just those involved in agriculture - all people are being mandated to fix a smart prepayment meter to obtain any power connection. Farmers, dalits, tribals, laundries and salons, poultry, textiles, MSMEs... all those who are getting subsidised power will get affected," he added.
The Chief Minister claimed that in the name of reforms, the union government was bringing in laws to loot the people and benefit its crony capitalist friends.
"The Centre is trying to hand over the crores of rupees of assets owned by the power companies to the corporate companies," he said, and suggested that the electricity employees realise the conspiracy and fight against the Centre, failing which they would lose their jobs as the Centre was inclined to privatise the power companies.
Responding to the request by opposition party leaders to extend the Assembly sessions, KCR promised that the government would conduct the winter session of Assembly soon, and said that the upcoming sessions would be held for 20-25 days, and that opportunities would be given to all to discuss all the issues related to the State.