Scam worth thousand crore by Congress in power purchase agreements: BJP

The Congress government struck a deal with gas based power plants in Kashipur to purchase power from them for 35 years at the rate of Rs 4.70 per unit at a time when its rate should have been just...

Dehradun,April 4: The Uttarakhand BJP on Tuesday alleged that the previous Harish Rawat-led Congress government had 'favoured' some gas based plants while entering into power purchase agreements which had led to a hike in electricity tariff in the state.

"The previous government struck a deal with gas based power plants in Kashipur to purchase power from them for 35 years at the rate of Rs 4.70 per unit at a time when its rate should have been just Rs 2.74 per unit, causing a loss of Rs 50 crore per month to the state exchequer," state BJP spokesman Vinay Goel told reporters in Dehradun.

It is a 'power scam' worth at least a thousand crore rupees, he said. Goel claimed that the recent hike in power tariff in Uttarakhand was necessitated by the need to compensate the losses caused to the state exchequer by the deal inked between Harish Rawat government and the gas based power plants in Kashipur.

Attacking the rival party, he said that its leaders had no moral right to create a fuss over the hike as 'it was a result of the misdeeds of its own government'. The spokesperson said that he has drawn the attention of Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to the huge scam in power purchase who has promised that no one who is guilty would be spared. The Uttarakhand Electricity Regulation Commission had recently effected a 5.72 per cent hike in power rates evoking sharp reaction from opposition Congress which had criticised it saying that it would increase the burden on the common people.

PTI