Harish Rao says Revanth Reddy engineering Rs 50,000 crore power scam

Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao has accused the Congress government in Telangana of a Rs 50,000 crore scam in the power sector. He alleged that the rejection of NTPC’s cheaper electricity offer in favour of new thermal plants was aimed at generating kickbacks for ruling party leaders.

Hyderabad: Senior BRS leader and former Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday alleged a massive Rs 50,000 crore power sector scam through the proposed construction of new thermal power plants while deliberately rejecting cheaper electricity options offered by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

He said the new plants would cost the State exchequer tens of thousands of crores extra and alleged that the real motive behind the projects was to generate 30–40 percent kickbacks for ruling party leaders.

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Demanding an immediate judicial probe into the power scam, the BRS leader said Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy owed an explanation to clarify the issue to the people of the State.

He urged the BJP leadership to stop shielding the Congress government over the issue by responding immediately to the scam.

NTPC has reportedly written three letters with its chairman personally meeting the Chief Minister offering 2,400 MW at just Rs 4.12 per unit under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act obligations with zero capital investment from Telangana.

Existing NTPC Stage-1 plants already supply power to Telangana at Rs 4.88–Rs 5.96 per unit. Despite this, the Revanth government allegedly turned down the offer and was pushing for new State-owned plants that will produce power at Rs 8–Rs10 per unit.

On July 29, 2024, Revanth Reddy told the Assembly that market rates were only Rs 5 per unit and power from NTPC would cost Rs 8– Rs 9, making new plants unnecessary. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the proposed Ramagundam plant itself admits a tariff of Rs 7.92 per unit, which Harish Rao said would escalate to Rs 9–Rs 10 after cost overruns, exactly the rate the Chief Minister earlier called ‘unnecessary’.

The proposed 3×800 MW plants (Ramagundam, Paloncha, Maktal) are estimated by TG-GENCO at Rs.14 crore per MW, higher than past projects such as Yadadri (Rs 8.63 crore/MW), Bhadradri (Rs 9.74 crore/MW) and NTPC expansion (Rs 12.23 crore/MW). The total extra burden, Harish Rao said, was Rs 15,000–20,000 crore above reasonable costs.

Contradiction with Clean Energy Policy

The Congress government’s own white paper and Clean and Green Energy Policy promised to reduce thermal power share and achieve 20,000 MW renewable energy by 2030–31. Yet the cabinet was aggressively pushing new coal-based thermal plants, which Harish Rao called ‘commission-driven’ decisions.

The creation of a new power distribution company (Discom) was allegedly the first step towards privatising profitable urban areas while saddling the government with loss-making rural Discoms. Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, who once opposed the Damaracherla (Nalgonda) thermal plant on environmental grounds, was now enthusiastically supporting new thermal projects.

Harish Rao said that the BRS would expose more alleged scams in the coming days, including an inter-state scam, on which 90 percent information was already collected, and irregularities in underground cabling, pumped storage and battery storage projects.

నో మోర్ థర్మల్ పవర్ ప్లాంట్స్ అనేదే మా విధానం అన్న మంత్రి కోమటిరెడ్డి..
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— BRS Party (@BRSparty) November 26, 2025