Punjab: SAD alleges undue benefit to private power plants by Capt govt

Badal alleged that “money had changed hands and private players had been benefitted by the Congress government, which practiced deliberate laxity in pursuing disputes involving Rs 2,500 crore on account of coal washing charges and a Rs 1,602 crore Tribunal award”.

Calling it “Punjab government-private players’ match-fixing”, Badal said, this had put a “burden of thousands of crores on common people”.

SAD president said that the power purchase agreements with the private players were done by SAD-BJP government “on the basis of standard PPA document of the union government at a time when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister.”

He challenged Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to “cancel the PPAs arrived with private thermal plants with immediate effect if there was anything wrong in the agreements which were drafted by Dr Manmohan Singh’s government”.

Addressing a press conference here, the SAD president said, “In case there is anything wrong in the PPAs they should be canceled. In fact, it is strange why this was not done since three years. The entire PPA and how it was drafted under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh should be probed”.
Raveen Thukral, the media advisor to CM said, “It’s absolutely wrong to state that the then government at the Centre had any role to play in the PPAs signed by the Akali Dal during their rule.

Sukhbir Badal is trying to mislead in a bid to wriggle out of the mess they created. The centre had merely issued guidelines and final agreements were sealed with the approval of the then CM Parkash Singh Badal.”

Thukral added, “If Centre had any role to play then why are the PPAs signed by Gujarat different from Punjab? The Akalis created this mess and are squarely responsible for putting this burden on the people of Punjab. This government is only trying to get things back to track.”

In a written reaction, Thukral further stated, “As regards the power tariff hike, the total hike under their (SAD-BJP) rule was 22.51 per cent in 2006-07 over 2001-02, 42.13 per cent in 2011-12 over 2006-07, 24.77 per cent in 2016-17 over 2011-12, as against a mere 13.69 per cent in 2019-20 over 2016-17. The Akalis did not increase tariff and FCA (Fuel Cost Adjustment) surcharge for 2015-16 and, in fact, reduced it by -0.65 per cent during 2016-17 in view of the Assembly elections.

As a result, the increase (9.33 per cent) during 2017-18 was slightly more, but it went down to 2.17 per cent and 1.78 per cent in 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively.”

Badal, meanwhile, said, “SAD demands an independent probe into the undue benefit of Rs 1400 crore given to private thermal plant managements and an additional benefit of Rs 1300 crore expected to be given imminently on account of coal washing charges which had been falsely claimed by them”.

Through the washing process, impurities like ash, soil, rock are removed from coal. Badal accused the state government of not pursuing the case against release of coal washing charges to private plants appropriately in the Supreme Court that had directed the state-owned power utility Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) last year to pay coal washing charges to a private thermal plant management.

“This is a case of match fixing. It is because of this underhand deal with the private plants that the state will have to pay Rs 2,500 crore to them despite the fact that during the previous SAD-BJP government, the case was properly pursued and the contention of the private plants was rejected both by the state power regulator Punjab state electricity regulatory corporation (PSERC) and Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL),” claimed Badal.

He said in the second case the Congress government’s petition for review of the Rs 1,602 crore dispute was rejected by the High Court because it did not challenge the award of the Tribunal dismissing its application for two and a half years. “This inexplicable delay has given an undue benefit to Eastern Minerals and Trading Agency (EMTA) also seems to be a result of match fixing.

Both scams should be probed by an independent agency and the latest power tariff increase should be taken back pending inquiry,”he added.

Badal said to improve power scenario in Punjab, SAD had decided to approve establishment of private power plants as per the guidelines of the Dr Manmohan Singh government. “Due to zero investment in the power sector by the previous Congress government, there was a huge power deficit,” Badal said.