Govt will ensure seven hrs of power at any cost: CM

Hyderabad, Dec 30 (UNI) Assuring the farmers that his government would ensure seven hours of power to energise their pumpsets at any cost, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today urged the District collectors to remove misapprehensions in their minds.

Holding a video conference with district collectors, the Chief Minister maintained that the previous TDP Government's overemphasis on gas-based power projects without required gas linkage was responsible for the present situation.

The Government proposed to strengthen power distribution system at a cost of about Rs 6000 crore with assistance from international financial institutions in Japan, to ensure quality power to farmers he said.

Referring to the opposition demand for stepping up hydel generation, he said at the present level of generation, there would not be even a single drop of water in the Srisailam reservoir after 45 days.

The present demand of 160 million units per day as against generation of 144 million units in the state was likely to go up to 183 million units in March, he explained, adding ''We have to judiciously use water''.

The erstwhile TDP Government supplied only seven hours of power, but imposed power tariff on farmers, he claimed, adding the Congress Government, on the other hand, was providing seven hours of power free of cost.

He urged district collectors to ensure holding sub-station level meetings with farmers to resolve their issues. He also wanted them to address all issues concerning farmers and send him periodic status reports on the situation.

The Government was providing a subsidy of Rs 2,500 crore to the power sector to provide relief to peasants, he added.

He wanted the officials to ensure that prior intimation was given to the people before cutting power so that they would not not be put to any inconvenience.

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