Power politics: Vajpayee ‘dedicates’ 3 old, running projects to nation

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee today dedicated to the nation three major power projects that are alr...

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee today dedicated to the nation three major power projects that are already under commercial operation for at least six months, and said his party would work for development of the power sector to speed up economic growth.

Dedicating the Rs 3,650 crore-Simhadri power generation plant of NTPC, Rs 1,684 crore-Chamera hydro project of NHPC and Rs 263 crore-transmission project of PGICL in North-East through video conferencing, Vajpayee asserted that the power sector would see the same changes as witnessed in the telecom and road sectors.

Union Minister of Power Anant G. Geete, Minister of State for Power Jayawanti Mehta, Secretary (Power) R.V. Shahi, senior officials of the Power Ministry and NTPC were present at Vigyan Bhavan. Vajpayee conceded that shortage of electricity has proven to be the bane of economic development and his party, if voted to power, would work for the cherished goal of electricity for all houses by 2012 through a conducive policy environment.

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Complimenting the promoter PSUs for completing the projects ahead of time, Vajpayee said the sector has been in such a bad state that even the achievement of last five years, including the passage of Electricity Act, could not be highlighted.

Without naming the Congress, he said: ‘‘Who is responsible for such a situation… People want to know the answer,’’ and cited the example of Madhya Pradesh saying that there is a high incidence of students failing in exams in the state as no electricity is provided during nights.

Like there are no roads connecting villages and cities, there is no electricity even after 50 years of Independence, Vajpayee said adding this Government has taken a slew of measures for this sector and results are there to see.

Vajpayee said the Government has taken many steps for the development of the power sector like in the recent interim budget presented by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.

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