Days after asserting that joining the Uday (Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana) scheme could help the Tamil Nadu government, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal today called on Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at the Secretariat and held discussions over it.
Jayalalithaa told Goyal that a Tamil Nadu team comprising state power minister and top officials would visit Delhi to hold detailed discussions with him over the issue. Top officials including Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), CMD, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) would be part of the team.
The meeting between the two is the first after several claims and counter-claims over the past several months with regard to Uday between the State and Union governments over the Centre's debt restructuring scheme for state discoms.
Also, today's meeting comes months after Goyal's "Jaya is inaccessible" remark ahead of the May 16 Assembly election which was vehemently countered by AIADMK leaders and Tamil Nadu Ministers.
On the meeting, an official release here said, the Chief Minister told Goyal that she had already requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi in her letter of October 2015 to consider the state's request to ensure that Tamil Nadu finances are not adversely affected while taking over TANGEDCO's debt.
Such points were also reiterated in the memorandum given by her to PM Modi last month, the release said.
The Chief Minister requested that the government of India should consider the request of Tamil Nadu government "positively" over the Uday scheme.
She also requested Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Central PSUs to provide loans for revenue and capital expenditure, and also for new power projects proposed by the state.
On July 11, Goyal had said in Delhi that Centre will not be in a position to accede to the state's demand for special concessions to join Uday.
Conditions that Tamil Nadu had indicated for taking up Uday include writing off 50 per cent outstanding debt of Rs. 68,000 crore, he had said, adding, Tamil Nadu was the only State to have sought such concessions. The Centre had extended till next year the date for joining Uday.
Power Ministry will hold a two-day conference of state
Power, Coal and Mines ministers after Switch expo.
"The NDA government at Centre effectively increased transmission capacity to south India which has perennially faced shortage of power by 71 per cent in last two years," Goyal said.
"In the next 18-24 months, we will expand it (transmission capacity) further. So effectively in three years of Modiji's government we would see 400 per cent (four-fold expansion) in transmission capacity to south India," he added.
