JD(S) blamed for power mess

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has accused JD(S) leader and former energy minister H D Revanna of indulging in irregularities in awarding coal purchase contract to his party leader from Tamil Nadu and causing loss to the state.

Though the coal could have been transported from Talcher in Orissa to Raichur by rail, Revanna permitted the firm to bring the coal by ship up to Chennai and then to Raichur by rail, Yeddyurappa said, while replying to debate on power crisis faced by the state in the state assembly.

Yeddyurappa said there had been several irregularities in the Energy department for years, including in purchase of transformers during Revanna’s regime. “Let him (Revanna) depose whatever he wants to say before the inquiry commission constituted under chairmanship of Justice Mohan Kumar.” Rejecting Revanna’s charge, he defended the letter he wrote to Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd managing director suggesting to honour tender agreement with the Bhatia company for purchase of 600,000 tonnes of imported coal, after KPC reduced it by 60,000 tonnes. “Since I became CM, the father-sons duo (JD-S chief Deve Gowda, Revanna and H D Kumaraswamy) have been levelling charges, demanding my resignation and attemptIng to topple my government.”

Detailing the initiatives planned by the government to ease the power situation, Yeddyurappa said it had been decided to ensure 23 hours of supply in Bangalore City, a measure dubbed by the opposition as done with “an eye on the upcoming election to the city civic body.”

He said while other cities and towns would get 22 hours power supply, rural areas will be ensured six hour three phase energy and six hour single phase supply.

After the BJP government came to power it has added 1,252 mw of energy to the state’s grid during 2008-09 and targeted 1,300 Mw in 2009-10. The government has initiated five mega power projects to produce 5,900 mw of energy in the coming three years, which would turn the state a power surplus one by then, he said.

Besides, steps were on to implement a 4,000 Mw capacity thermal power plant by NTPC for which the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde will lay foundation stone at Bijapur on March 27, he said. The opposition Congress unsatisifed by the reply staged a walkout. Efforts by JD(S) members, including its leader H D Revanna, to seek clarifications came to a nought as the Speaker K G Bhopaiah adjourned the house for tomorrow.