Naidus Remark Stirs A Hornets Nest In Andhra Power Board

The joint action committee of the various Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board (APSEB) unions, representing around 74,000 workers, have challenged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to either substantiate his remark describing the power board as the most corrupt organisation, or resign.

The Chief Minister is reported to have made the remark at the chief ministers conference on administrative reforms in New Delhi last week.

As a mark of protest, engineers association president B M Gandhi, who is a divisional enginner, has resigned. The Telugu Desam Party faction loyal to late N T Rama Rao yesterday joined the criticised Naidu for his utterances and accused him of preparing ground for privatisation of the board by dubbing its employees as corrupt.

At a press conference here yesterday, the faction leader M Krishnam Naidu put the blame for the boards poor financial health on the government.

He alleged that the Chief Ministers privatisation programme for power generation, directing APSEB to purchase power from private operators at thrice the cost at which it could have generated the electricity, was the root cause of the crisis.

The NTR-TDP leader gave the instance of the states gas-based power plants and said, originally, the plants were to be commissioned in the state sector at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore per megawatt installed capacity.

But in the name of privatisation, he alleged, it was awarded to GVK Industries and Spectrum. owing to which the cost rose to Rs 4 crore per megawatt. Subsequently, the Board was forced to purchase power from GVK at Rs 2.40 per unit at the power station end, while another nearby state-run gas-based power station was generating power at Rs 1.20 a unit.

In the case of short gestation period power projects, which have now been licensed, he said the per unit charge will be four times of what the Board pays for its own generation.

While the government blundered over the power front, the blame has been put on the staff.

The NTR-TDP leader demanded to know which state can boast of power stations like the Vijayawada thermal complex, which had been giving a plant load factor of 90 per cent for the past 14 years.

Krishnam Naidu demanded that the Chief Minister make public of the survey that potrays the state electricity board as corrupt.

He also demanded to know why the survey was commissioned.

The NTR-TDP leader alleged that the Research Analysis Wing had sent a confidential report to the Prime Ministers Office regarding Chandrababu Naidus activities while he was in Malaysia, and demanded that the Centre make public the report.