Chennai: Asserting that late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s prudent initiatives have helped to make the loss making electricity board (Tangedco) come out of the red, Electricity Minister P. Thangamani said, Tangedco has attained the stage of achieving ‘break even’ this current fiscal.
Refuting the opposition charge that power outages still haunted the people, Mr. Thangamani who set the records straight claimed that the previous DMK regime initiated few schemes but never completed them.
Also, the power purchase agreements signed by the DMK government then for 25 and 30 years had only worsened the power scenario. “Tamil Nadu got relief only after Amma (late CM Jayalalithaa) initiated appropriate prudent measures to improve the situation. These turned propitious for the State and TN not only became self-sufficient but also a power surplus State, due to her efforts,” the Minister said.
TN added 10,496 MW to the State grid from 2011. Due to the untiring efforts of late Jayalalithaa, the demand and energy cuts imposed during 2008 was totally withdrawn from June 5, 2015 and power is being supplied round the clock now, he added. Further, the government has signed '24 X 7 power supply for all' document on Jan. 9, this year ensuring to continue to supply quality uninterrupted power to all categories of consumers. “Tangedco’s losses, which were Rs 13,985 crore in 2013 – 14 have been reduced to Rs 3,783 crore in 2016 – 17 and after a gap of 15 years Tangedco will break even during the current fiscal,” Mr Thangamani announced.
Initiating a debate during the demand for grants for electricity and prohibition departments in the Assembly on Monday, DMK member J. Austin, who was formerly with the AIADMK, accused the State government of “continuing to cause hardships upon the people by imposing power cuts.” He also raised the issue of several posts lying vacant in TANGEDCO.
At one juncture when Mr Thangamani subtly reminded him that he had switched loyalties, Austin retorted, “I always remain loyal to the party and I don’t betray from within.”
