Thermal units needed for growth: Dharmana

July 29: Expressing his serious concern over the recent developments that took place in Sompeta in Srikakulam, which led to death of two farmers, the minister for revenue, Mr Dharmana Prasada Rao, said there was need for thermal projects to balance the demand and supply of the power in the country apart from speeding up the development process in the state, particularly in backward areas.

Talking to this correspondent on Thursday, Mr Prasada Rao said the Congress government, ever sin-ce it came to power in 2004, has been adopting mutlipronged strategy for the development of the state. It was also thought of spreading the industries to regions to balance the development. Hence the projects were allocated to Nellore, Prakasam, Kadapa, Krishna, East Godavari, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts.

Referring to Srikakulam, his own constituency, the minister said the district has been known for migration of BPL families to other parts of the state. In this background and under the new industrial policy, Srika-kulam was chosen as most favoured destination for setting up power projects.

An investment of Rs 85,000 crore has been envisaged for setting up of seven power projects and one nuclear power plant. “Except for power projects, there is no other option for this district,” he said. He said sanction of projects were subject to environment and other statutory clearances and no special exemption were given to any industry. People in Srikakulam have been misled that they would die due to thermal plants and it was well known fact that not a single life was lost anywhere in the state due to thermal power plants.

He said the people should be told that the power project would initiate urbanisation in the backward region and infrastructure like hospitals, schools and other institutions would come up to improve the quality of life.