No power cuts for now, says CM
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. (Photo: DC/File)
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said on Friday that his claim during the agitation for a separate state, of Telangana becoming a “rich and revenue surplus” state if separated from AP, had been proved true by the 14th Finance Commission.
Mr Chandrasekhar Rao said that the Commission had declared Telangana and Gujarat as “revenue surplus states” recently in its report based on which the Telangana government would now seek special permission from the Centre for securing double the loans from existing provisions from various funding agencies by relaxing the FRBM norms.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that the government would not impose power cuts in the state for now since the supply-demand situation was “satisfactory” and a decision on this would be taken after reviewing the power situation in March. He added that the government had decided to purchase power from the open market by spending whatever amount was needed to meet the summer demand.
Addressing a press conference in Secretariat on Friday, the Chief Minister said, “When I had said during the Telangana agitation that Telangana would be a rich and revenue surplus state if separated from AP, everyone laughed at me. Now, this has been proved true by the 14th Finance Commission. Though Telangana lost special funds and grants from the Centre on account of this, I feel proud of Telangana getting the ‘revenue surplus state’ status along with Gujarat.”
The Chief Minister said if the Centre raised the FRBM loan cap from 3 per cent to 4.75 per cent of GSDP as had been sought by Telangana, the government could raise an additional Rs 4,000 crore in loans.
“At present, we are purchasing 300 MW power from the open market. The current power availability in the state is 4,300 MW. Another 2,000 MW will be added by this year end. By 2018, the state will become ‘power surplus’,”he added. He also asked people not to use the word “settler” in Telangana and asked people in the city to feel proud of being “Hyderabadi”.
“Like all residents of Mumbai proudly say they are ‘Mumbaikars’, similarly all residents in the city should proudly say “we are Hyderabadis”. The Telangana government will not show any discrimination against anyone residing in Hyderabad or Telangana,” the CM remarked.
Mr Chandrasekhar Rao said he was partly satisfied with the Railway Budget and thanked the Centre for promising to complete some pending projects in the state.
He said that he was talking with the neighbouring governments of Maharashtra on the Pranahita Chevella project and Karnataka on getting surplus water from Almatti to the Krishna basin in Telangana and both state were co-operating with TS.
He, however, said that there were differences with AP on power sharing issues in Krishnapatnam and Sileru. He also informed that he would launch a Rs 1,000-per-month pension scheme for beedi workers in Telangana on March 1.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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