The Telangana cabinet on Monday approved the report submitted by Justice Madan Bhimarao Lokur Commission, which investigated the power contracts made during the ten-year rule of KCR and errors in the construction of plants. It decided to take action against former Chief Minister KCR and other key players who played a key role in those decisions.
It was resolved to present the said report in the current assembly and session and may announce the action to be taken. It may be recalled that soon after coming to power, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy released a white paper on the power sector in the legislative assembly.
In the discussion held on this occasion BRS members challenged that an inquiry be conducted into power purchases. With that, the government ordered a judicial inquiry. Based on this report, official sources said that a case is likely to be registered against several people including KCR.
The Report has concluded that KCR has financially collapsed the DISCOMs in the last ten years, that the authorities have not cared even though the power companies are sinking for his praise, and that the Telangana society has been forced to pay the price for the next 25 years due to the decisions taken in power purchases and construction of power plants.
It is believed that the Bhadradri Power Plant, built with outdated technology, will burden the people with up to Rs. 9,000 crore in the next 25 years.
The cabinet expressed its displeasure that compared to supercritical, the plant’s auxiliary consumption (the power consumed by the plant itself), heat rate, maintenance, etc., in subcritical will incur an additional cost of up to Rs. 350 crore annually, and an additional burden of up to Rs. 9,000 crore over the life of the plant of 25 years.
The report also concluded that there was a loss of Rs. 3,642 crore due to the power purchase agreement signed with Chhattisgarh. It was wrongly stated that at that time, due to competitive bidding, Kerala got a unit current of only Rs. 3.60, but Telangana initially got a unit of electricity for Rs. 3.90, but later, in the name of energy adjustment, it was Rs. 4.50; a unit had to be bought in the external market for seven rupees.
It alleged that an agreement was made with Chhattisgarh to take 1000 MW of current, but that state did not provide current to that extent, and as a result, it had to purchase in the open market (open access), resulting in an additional burden of Rs. 2,000 crore on Telangana.
It also alleged that despite purchasing current, Chhattisgarh was not making timely payments, and therefore was being paid Rs. 750 crore in the form of interest/penalties under late payment surcharge. It alleged that a corridor was booked with the power grid for the transfer of 1000 MW, and charges of Rs. 635 crore were incurred due to non-transfer of that amount.