Rosaiah agrees to buy power

Bowing to the pressure from the main Opposition, Telugu Desam, the state government on Wednesday decided to release 1.5 lakh power connections to farmers. TD members had staged a walk out from the Assembly protesting the delay in the sanctioning of new connections.

Earlier, the minister, Mr Ponnala Laxmaiah, informed the House that about 64,000 applications are pending with the government. He told the House that 3.41 lakh connections under tatkal scheme have been sanctioned and those eligible are supplied free power. The minister dared the TD members to compare the power supply during their regime and between 2004-09.

The TD president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, had come out with a pro-farmer stand and demanded waiver of power dues from tatkal farmers.

In retaliation the minister said, “When Mr Naidu was the CM, he announced that agriculture is a waste, whereas now he is showering sympathy on farmers for political gains,”

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, finally agreed to buy power from outside. With power demand reaching 240 million units a day, he gave permission to APTransco to buy 120 MW power every day for the next three months. This would cost the exchequer Rs 100 crore.