Power bill hike by Chandrababu Naidu sowed seeds for TS movement: Harish Rao

Addressing the gathering during the Vidyuthu Vijayotsavam in Medak, Harish Rao said Telangana government had spent Rs 39,000 crore to ensure 24 power supply

Medak: Finance Minister T Harish Rao said the Centre had promised to give Rs 5,000 crore to the Telangana government annually if Telangana privatized the power sector in the State.

Addressing the gathering during the Vidyuthu Vijayotsavam in Medak on Monday, the Minister said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had however refused to bow to the pressure from the Centre. The State government had spent Rs.39,000 crore to ensure 24 power supply. Recalling that Chandrashekhar Rao had launched a protest against the electricity tariff hike for the agriculture sector by the Chandrababu Naidu government in 1999-2000, he said Naidu’s decision to increase the electricity bills had actually sown the seeds for the second phase of the Telangana movement as Chandrashekhar Rao eventually resigned from his membership in the State Assembly.

Due to a lack of sufficient sub-stations, Rao said transformers used to break down quite frequently. When the Congress government failed to grant more transformers, the Minister said he along with farmers had camped in front of a sub-station for a couple of days in protest. When the government granted 100 transformers, Congress MLAs had questioned the government for granting so many transformers for Siddipet alone.

The Telangana government was now supplying uninterrupted power supply to the agriculture and industrial sectors now. The Congress used to give power holidays to industries back then, he said, adding that now, the people had given a permanent holiday to the Congress from power as they were fed up with its rule.

Collector Rajarshi Shah, MLC Sheri Subhash Reddy, MLA M Padma Devendar Reddy and others were present.