"The Centre has turned a blind eye to our demand for allocation of 1000 mw of power. Our Central allocation of coal and gas has also been reduced," Electricity Minister Natham R Viswanathan told the state assembly.
Replying to the debate on grants for his department, he said Centre was dragging its feet on approving the Kundah Pumped storage hydel project,citing the Cauvery issue though Tamil Nadu would not draw water from the river.
"Centre is yet to approve the project citing the Cauvery River Authority (provisions). The fact is we are only going to draw water from a subsidiary (Kundah) of Cauvery's subsidiary river, Bhavani and that too from Tamil Nadu side. This shows Centre's step-motherly treatment towards the state," he said.
He again took a dig at the Centre when he said it was not concerned about setting up transmission lines which were required when the state purchased power from others states like Gujarat. Setting up of transmission lines came in the Central purview, he added.
With the state facing power shortage, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had directed expediting projects currently underway and was also working on new ones, he said.
"All efforts are being taken to commission the State/Joint Venture projects such as Mettur Thermal Power Stage III, North Chennai Thermal Power Project Stage II and TNEB-NTPC JV at Vallur at the earliest to tide over the present shortage," he said. MORE PTI SA BN
