Telangana power crisis: CM says Centre ‘vengeful’ towards state

Hyderabad: Under fire from the TDP, ruling neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and opposition parties over his of way tackling power crisis in Telangana, its Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday dragged Centre into the issue accusing it of adopting a "vengeful attitude" towards his State.

"The Government of India that should ensure implementation of the (AP) Reorganisation Act has not been co-operating with the Telangana government. It is adopting a vengeful attitude towards us," a CMO release quoted Rao as saying.

Rao alleged that Andhra Pradesh government was not supplying 54 per cent of power which is due to Telangana and is trying to block power generation at Srisailam reservoir.

"The previous rulers did not set up power generating stations in Telangana and hence we are facing a crisis now. Our power woes will continue for the next two to three years. I told people about this even during the election campaign," the TRS chief said.

On the measures his government has taken to overcome the power crisis in Telangana, Rao said Telangana is currently purchasing 1000 MW of power from Chhattisgarh while new power generating stations are also being set up to resolve the crisis.

He also appealed to farmers to cultivate only irrigateddry crops in the Rabi season in view of the ongoing power crunch.

Rao's remarks came against the backdrop of mounting attack from opposition parties in Telangana over his failure to handle the power crisis effectively. Apart from the Telugu Desam Party, Congress, BJP and CPI have accused Rao of doing nothing to overcome the crisis and have taken exception to his attempt to "blame" his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu for the situation. In a strong rebuttal, Andhra Pradesh government has said that while AP generated 5,710 million units (mu) of thermal power, only 4,94 mu was used by it and 769 mu were supplied to Telangana.