Govt reassures farmers, sets apart Rs 689 cr to purchase power

Hyderabad, Dec 27 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said Rs 689 crore has been earmarked for power purchase from other states upto March 2007 to meet the demand and supply gap of about 32 million units per day.

Dismissing as ''unwarranted'' the opposition stir in support of the farmers, he told newspersons here that ''the farmers need not panic as my government will ensure that not a single acre of farmers land dried up for want of power to energise their pumpsets.

He assured agriculturists that they can consume seven hours of supply to energise their pumpsets and announced a four-hour power cut for other sectors, including industries and domestic consumers.

While resuming hydel power generation at Srisailam, the government was now purchasing about 175 MW power, about 115 MW from West Bengal and the remaining from the Kaiga Atomic Power Plant, he said, adding his government was exerting pressure on the Centre to allocate 300 to 400 MW of unallocated power to Andhra Pradesh.

As against the demand for 163 million units only 131 million units were produced in the state now, he said, adding ''we will do all that is possible to ensure power supply to farmers''.

UNI SM VV PDM DS1613