KCR warns Centre of revolt over power reforms bill

HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao demanded that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre immediately withdraw the Electricity (Amendments) Bill 2022 bringing in power sector reforms, which he said were detrimental to the people.

The state assembly will adopt a resolution to this effect during the last day of the monsoon session on Tuesday, KCR announced while participating in the discussion on proposed power sector reforms.

“I request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the latest legislation on electricity reforms, which are detrimental to the families below the poverty line and farmers. It is beter the Centre gracefully withdraw the bill before the people revolt,” he said.

The chief minister recalled that the Prime Minister had earlier introduced controversial agriculture laws and later withdrawn the same ater strong protests from farmers, before apologising to the people.

Stating that the country would plunge into darkness with the lopsided power policies of the Centre, the CM alleged that the Modi government had failed to make optimum utilisation of the available power.

He said the total installed capacity of the power plants in the country is 404,000 lakh megawats, with a base load (firm power) of 242,000 MW.

However, the country recorded highest peak load of 210,000 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 said.

KCR said the per capita power consumption in Telangana, at the time of its formation in June 2014, was 970 units and it had gone up to 2,126 units in 2022.

“However, the national per capita power consumption has increased from 957 units in 2014 to 1,255 units in 2022,” he pointed out.

“Let the Centre deny my statistics. I am ready to resign my post,” he challenged.

Alleging that the Centre is trying to hand over the power sector to big corporates, the chief minister strongly objected to the Centre passing several bills in Parliament on subjects like power which are in the concurrent list, without consulting the states.

He alleged that the Centre was trying to stop granting of loans by the Rural Electrification Corporation to Telangana in the name of power sector reforms.

“Telangana is a land of valour and has a history of waging prolonged batles. We are not afraid of your threats. We shall expose the Centre’s double game,” he warned.

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