Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu released a "white paper" on electricity today, explaining how the Congress government ruined the power sector and pushed the state into a deep crisis during the last decade.
This is the first in a series of six white papers which the Chandrababu Naidu government said it would publish about different sectors to "put the facts before the public", "educate them" and invite suggestions for improvements and find the "way forward".
"AP was the first state in the country in 1998 to usher in reforms in the power sector, when I was the Chief Minister. Electricity deficit was just 1.5 per cent in the state in 2004 but shot up to 17.6 per cent now. Power distribution companies were pushed into losses amounting to Rs 17,200 crore by March 2014 from zero deficit in 2004," Chandrababu said.
Between 2004 and 2014, an additional financial burden of Rs 28,835 crore was imposed on power consumers by way of hike in tariff and levy of fuel adjustment surcharge, he said.
"Domestic and industrial consumers got 24 hours power supply during our rule till May 2004. Now, power cuts are being imposed for four to 12 hours for domestic consumers and a three-days-a-week power holiday has been announced for industries," he said.
"The Congress government had no foresight either for additional power generation or getting power from the new grid. Gas-based and thermal power plants are suffering from severe shortage of fuel and lying idle. We are losing 14,000 million units per annum," he said.
The 4000 MW ultra-mega power plant at Krishnapatnam remained a non-starter as work on it got stalled in July 2011 due to rise in prices of imported coal, the main source of fuel for the plant.
