Naidu, YSR trade 'power' charges

In a continued war of words on the state of development in Andhra Pradesh, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu accused Congress of using power sector as an instrument of vote-bank politics while the opposition party sought to highlight 'deliberate neglect' of the key sector during eight years of TDP rule.

As Naidu presented a 'progress report' on achievements of his government in power sector, through an interactive programme telecast live by five regional television channels, the Congress Legislature Party leader in the dissolved assembly YS Rajasekhar Reddy came out with a parallel report focussing on power mismanagement and mounting losses.

While chief minister ridiculed the Congress' promise of free power to farmers saying such a course would spell doom for the sector and plunge the state into darkness, Reddy justified it on the ground that it would give a fillip to farming sector as 75 per cent of the state's population depend on agriculture.

Turning the tables on Congress, Naidu quoted senior Congress parliament member PR Munshi as having said in the parliament that political parties should stop promising free power for the sake of votes and using power sector as potential vote bank.

"Unfortunately, Congress leaders are precisely doing that, whether it is in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh or Andhra Pradesh. They are doling out misleading promises to cheat people," the chief minister said.

During the 90-minute live interactive session, Naidu listed out his government's achievements in power and infrastructure sectors and later took questions from general public who made calls using toll-free numbers.

While Naidu claimed that AP was in the forefront of power sector reforms in the country and its tariffs were the lowest, the opposition leader said the power sector was a 'major causality' ever since TDP took over the reins, suffering an accumulated loss of Rs 16,000 crore despite frequent hike in tariff.