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Journalism of Courage
Hyderabad, Oct 29: President K R Narayanan has given his assent to the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Reforms Bill, 1998, which paves the way for restructuring of the state electricity board.
As per the bill, the Andhra board would be divided into two independent corporations — for generation and transmission — besides establishing an autonomous tariff regulatory authority.
The bill was passed by the AP Legislative Assembly during the last monsoon session. According to a communication from the Union Home Ministry to the special secretary of the State legislature, the President gave his assent to the Bill on Oct 21.
APSEB secretary AK Kutty told The Indian Express that the government would have to notify a date from which the new Act comes into effect. “The process of restructuring begins with the issuance of the notification,” he explained.
Announcing that Presidential assent to the Bill had been received, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu told the state executive of the Telugu Desam Partythat the board needed to be strengthened before the reforms were implemented.
Expressing concern over the alarming Rs 1,900 crore deficit in which the board was steeped in, Naidu hinted at increasing power tariff to tide over the mounting deficit immediately. “Unless we make the APSEB viable economically, no investor would come forward to give us funds,” he said.
The tariff of APSEB was much lower compared to that of any other neighbouring state. “All other states have increased their power tariff recently, but not we,” he said.
The Chief Minister, however, did not specify whether the tariff would be increased immediately. “I invite your suggestions to strengthen the board so that we can meet our commitment to the people,” he said.
Referring to the political compulsions of the government, especially at a time when elections to the Assembly were just a year away, Naidu said: “If we give the entire Rs 1,900 crore to the APSEB from the treasury, we cannot implement any other welfare measures forthe poor.”
Claiming credit for enhancing the State annual plan size by one third for the current year, he said: “Even others in infrastructure and finance sectors are happy with our performance. Crisil has decided to give A-grade rating to Andhra Pradesh this year,” he declared.
The Chief Minister said efforts were being made to secure the maximum assistance from the Centre for taking up relief measures in flood-affected areas. “A delegation of our MPs too met the Prime Minister yesterday to request him to treat the Rs 200 crore assistance as grant,” he said.
Naidu criticised the opposition parties, particularly the Congress, for blindly opposing the government. “Their one-point programme is to oppose whatever we take up. But, we need not bother about such baseless charges,” he said.
