Khammam BRS demands White Paper on farmer’s issues, power supply

Khammam BRS leaders on Friday demanded that the Telangana government release a white paper on agricultural power supply, power generation, coal reserves and crop losses, alleging serious lapses in governance.

Khammam: The district BRS leaders demanded that the Congress government release a White Paper on electricity supply for agriculture, compensation for withered crops, power generation capacity, and coal reserves as well as supply status in the State.

Speaking to the media here on Friday, MLC Tata Madhusudhan and former MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah launched a scathing attack on the anti-people policies of the Revanth Reddy government alleging that governance in the State has completely derailed.

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Madhusudhan noted that the during former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s ten-year rule, the State benefited from 24-hour, high-quality, free electricity, piped drinking water to every household, and the restoration of irrigation tanks under ‘Mission Kakatiya’, all of which transformed agriculture into a prosperous activity.

While the State’s peak electricity demand stands at 15,000 megawatts, the government has been generating only 6,700 megawatts and has completely failed to bridge the resulting deficit. The fact that power outages occurred even during meetings attended by the Energy Minister Bhati Vikramarka speaks volumes about the severity of the electricity crisis in the State, the MLC said.

While the Godavari has a storage capacity of 326.93 TMC, only 174.58 TMC was stored, and 750 TMC of water was allowed to flow into Andhra Pradesh causing a grave injustice to Telangana farmers.

The decision to issue notices to seed companies, prohibiting them from selling seeds for the second crop, was one of the most malicious actions in the history of Indian democracy, Madhusudhan alleged.

Venkata Veeraiah demanded an explanation as to why coal production was cut from 70 million tonnes in 2023-24 to 58 million tonnes this year. The government was weakening SCCL to facilitate the import of foreign coal, thereby pocketing massive commissions.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s tendency to shift the blame for his own failures onto officials while also threatening them was clear evidence of his administrative incompetence, he said.

The BRS leaders demanded compensation to farmers whose crops had withered due to a lack of water and electricity. Burnt-out agricultural pump sets and transformers must be repaired on a war footing, at the government’s expense.

A comprehensive inquiry must be conducted into Singareni tenders, the reduction in coal production, and the import of foreign coal. The government must immediately clarify its stand on the sale of shares in Singareni and any plans for its privatisation, they added.