Congress orders judicial probe into BRS' power sector graft'

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into alleged graft by the previous BRS government in signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Chhattisgarh government.

The setting up of Yadadri and Bhadradri thermal power stations, with outdated subcritical technology, causing huge losses to the state exchequer running into thousands of crores of rupees, will also be probed, Revanth Reddy said in the Legislative Assembly.

The Chief Minister also announced the constitution of an all-party fact-finding committee to investigate the 24-hour power supply claim of the previous BRS government.

The actions come against the backdrop of former energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy challenging the Congress government to order a judicial probe, after minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy alleged that there was huge corruption by the BRS regime in the power sector over the past nine years.

Revanth Reddy said that the BRS government had signed a power purchase agreement with the Chhattisgarh government in haste, soon after the formation of Telangana state in 2014, without inviting tenders.

He said despite Opposition parties and Telangana power employees’ JAC strongly opposing the agreement because it would impose a burden of thousands of crores of rupees on the state exchequer, then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao turned a blind eye and proceeded with MoU.

Revanth Reddy claimed that the former chief minister targeted JAC



chairman K. Raghu, who played a key role in the statehood agitation, for opposing him, demoting and sidelining the official in the department for the past nine years.

"The Centre was ready to give power to Telangana for a cheaper price, but the BRS government went ahead with its purchase of 1,000 MW from Chhattisgarh. It is imposing Rs 1,362 crore burden on state government every year due to higher price," Reddy said.

Addressing the issue of old technology being used in the construction of power projects, he said: "The Centre asked all states to build new thermal power projects only with super critical technology from 2017. But the BRS government opted for outdated sub-critical technology for setting up Bhadradri and Yadadri projects. These are big scams that happened during (the BRS) regime and a judicial probe will unearth the entire scam."

Revanth Reddy said that despite spending Rs 25,000 crore, the Yadadri plant could not be completed even in eight years, given that the BRS government claimed it would begin operations in two years. The cost of power production for one MW shot up to Rs 6.27 crore due to this delay, he said.

Similarly, the power production cost for one MW at the Bhadradri plant, which was built at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, shot up to Rs 9.74 crore, against Rs 6.27 crore, he said.

"Despite spending Rs 35,000 crore on these two projects, the BRS government could not achieve any significant power production," Revanth Reddy said.