Hyderabad: Ridiculing the charge made by Telugu Desam accusing the government of complacency on the power supply front, irrigation minister T. Harish Rao has challenged them for an open debate on the issue and said the government was supplying more power than before.
“We are meeting almost 144 million units of energy against the demand of more than 170 MU a day. We are either generating or purchasing power from outside which is more than the supply in AP,” Mr Harish Rao said.
He also blamed the previous government for their failure to set up more power units in Telangana.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s office sent out a press note stating that the government has been taking all steps to purchase more power from outside to meet the demand.
Lack of sufficient rains and more dependence on borewells by farmers have led to increase in demand by the agriculture sector. “The power supply demand has touched 180 MU on several days in Telangana which is a record.
For the past 15 days, on an average, the demand has been 164 MU. We are buying power from outside at a cost of Rs 8.50 ps per unit, and we are able to meet 141 MU demand leaving a shortfall.
We are also deprived of 800 MW power share from Simhadri NTPC unit in Visakhapatnam for the past few days due to cyclone havoc all around,” the release said.
