Times of India: Ahmedabad: Friday, December 01, 2017.
Congress
communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala on Thursday alleged that between
2002 and 2016, the Gujarat government doled out large sums from the public
exchequer to ensure huge profits to four private companies from power purchase
from the private companies Adani, Essar, Tata and China Power.
Surjewala
claimed that the Gujarat government was buying power at a price of Rs 24.67 per
unit from private power companies, while at the same time it was buying
electricity from state-owned NTPC at rates between Rs 2.88 to Rs 3.17 per unit.
He claimed that at the same time the BJP government ensured that state-owned
power plants do not perform and run at at 33% to 38% of their capacities to
ensure purchases are made from private companies.
"At this
rate, the BJP-led Gujarat government bought electricity worth Rs 62,549 cr from
four private companies, the highest amount of private power purchased in
India." In three years, between 2013 and 2016, Surjewala claimed that the
BJP-led government had bought power worth Rs 26,195 cr.
"Gujarat
government's own power companies only produce a cumulative of 3,283 MWwhile
installed capacity is 8,641MW. It is clear that neither the public exchequer
nor citizens are benefiting, only private players are. In fact these companies
should be supplying power at cost benefit," said Surjewala.
"From
information obtained under the RTI Act and submissions made in the state
assembly, we have calculated that the Gujarat government has purchased power
worth Rs 10,896 cr from Adani, Rs 4,842 cr from Essar, Rs 8,491 cr worth of
power from Tata and Rs 1,966 cr worth of power from China Light Power in this
three-year period," said Surjewala.
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