Tn to purchase power from Kerala, Assam, Haryana

Chennai, Dec 8 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government has decided to purchase power from neighbouring Kerala, besides Assam and Haryana to tide over the power crisis during the ensuing summer season, Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy said today.

Reacting to the critical remarks made by All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi president R Sarath Kumar on the power situation in the state, the Ministers, in a statement here said, as directed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, steps were being taken to ensure that the people get uninterrupted power supply during the summer season.

He said the state was presently facing power shortage as it failed to get 1500 MW of power from wind energy and another 1000 MW from the central pool, which included 400 MW from the Public Sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).

Thanks to the efforts taken in the last ten days, round-the-clock power supply was restored in the districts of southern Kanniyakumari and Tirunelveli, and the power position had been improved in industrial cities like Coimbatore and Erode, he added.

Blaming the previous AIADMK regime, Mr Veerasamy claimed that no major power projects were launched when Ms Jayalalithaa was in power and in five years, only 348 MW of power was generated.

As the need for electricity was growing by 700 MW every year, the DMK government, soon after coming to power in May last year, has taken steps for generation of 4100 MW of power, he said.

Mr Sarath Kumar, who had served as Rajya Sabha member, should aware that India faced shortage of 1,00,000 MW of power and even 60 years after Independence, 1,24,000 villages in the country have not received power, Mr Veerasamy said.

He said the consumption of power by people was also growing at an alarming rate. People like Mr Sarath Kumar, while applying for power connection, would declare that they would require 1000 or 2000 KW, but they started using ten time more than what they sought by using various electrical and electronic items.

As most of the 1.8 crore consumers have started consuming more power, the demand for power grew by 18 per cent this year, over the previous year, Mr Veerasamy said.

Despite all odds, Tamil Nadu topped the country in providing adequate power to the consumers, he said adding in most of the states, including New Delhi, the consumers could not even get power for six hours, Mr Veerasamy claimed.

UNI