Threat of privatisation looming large over power sector in State: Jagadish Reddy

Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said the subsidies extended to the different categories of consumers during the BRS regime would soon be a thing of the past as the Congress government was out to cut down the burden on the exchequer in every possible way.

Hyderabad: Sounding a caution to consumers of all categories of power and employees of power utilities on the threat of privatisation looming large over the energy sector in the State, former Minister and BRS MLA G. Jagadish Reddy said on Sunday that the State government’s moves to hand over collection of power bills in the old city of Hyderabad to the Adani Group would soon be a State-wide affair.

Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said the subsidies extended to the different categories of consumers during the BRS regime would soon be a thing of the past as the Congress government was out to cut down the burden on the exchequer in every possible way. The government would not hesitate to opt for metered power supply to the agriculture sector as well.

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Former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao did not yield to the pressures of the Centre for installing meters for agriculture services, he said, fearing that the Revanth Reddy government would make it a reality soon. He said the decision to hand over the bill collection to the Adani Group in the old city was intended to show the consumers in that part of the city in bad light. The BRS government had managed to ensure 98 percent collection of bill dues. The Chief Minister, as reported in the media, attributed the decision to hand over bill collection to a private company to poor collection of bills in the old city. He said there could be some cases of default in payment of power bills due to the financial difficulties of a few consumers, and such defaults were common in every locality.
But the failure of a few to clear the power bills on time would not call for privatisation. Revanth Reddy was working in tandem with the BJP and acting as desired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He questioned the need for handing over the power bill collection to any private company when the Congress government had promised to give power up to 200 units free of charge to every household.

He wanted Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka to spell out his stand on the issue. The BRS had strongly opposed the auction of coal mines. But the Congress government had joined hands with the BJP to facilitate the auction of coal mines. Both parties could be working together on privatisation of the power sector at the cost of the welfare of the people, he feared.