Uma, Centre power row hits high voltage

Observing that the attention of Power Minister P.M. Sayeed had been drawn to the reported statement of Bharati, the release said ‘‘the accusation of political vendetta is entirely baseless and politically motivated’’.

Citing several facts about allocation of power to the state, it said the Centre was not only fully concerned about the proper power supply to MP but had promptly responded and taken timely actions to address the problem. The Chief Minister had yesterday accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her confidants of ‘‘acting with political vendetta’’ in disbursement of coal and power to the state.

In addition to entitlement of allocation of power from the central generating stations, MP had been given about 1200 MW additional power, the release said adding the additional allocation was the highest any state in the country was given.

The regular arrangement which had been made at the instance of the Centre through the Power Trading Corporation for MP to supply about 500 MW of power got reduced by almost 250 MW because of inaction on the part of MP Electricity Board and the state government which did not renew the arrangement beyond May 2004 despite repeated reminders from the corporation, it said. ‘‘Almost 250 MW of additional power supply was therefore reduced entirely on account of inaction and non-response from Madhya Pradesh side,’’ the release said.