CM seeks Cong., Left parties' cooperation

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 20. Stopping short of a call for ending indefinite fast or the on-going agitation for rollback of the power tariff hike, the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, has appealed to the Congress and the Left parties to understand his compulsions and cooperate.

In a media interaction on Sunday, Mr. Naidu dwelt at length on the compulsive factors leading to hike in the power tariff and the perils of suspending, let alone reversing, implementation of the reforms.

`It does not give me any pleasure to burden the people.

Why should I stand on false prestige. My only concern is development of the State and the interests of the people', he said to underscore the compulsions.

Mr. Naidu regretted that the hard decision taken in the larger interests of the State's development should have been politicised and translated into an agitation that sought to put the development clock back.

The Congress and Left parties tried to disrupt official and routine programmes. The power tariff hike had been debated adequately in the Assembly, the Government patiently heard the Opposition point of view and put forward its own case. This being the case, it was not fair to stretch it further.

Mr. Naidu said the present hike was only for this year and that in within four months, the Electricity Regulatory Commission would review the situation for the next year when the Government could make out a case for more slabs.

The Chief Minister could not, however, promise that a review would surely mean reduction in hike. In another context, he said tariff hike was inevitable, but the scale of hike would be much less in a reforms-oriented regime than otherwise.

Mr. Naidu painted a gloomy picture of power scenario if the reforms were to be slowed or reversed or the tariff hike rolled back. Thanks to painstaking efforts over the years, the investor perception of the State improved from 22nd position to third, but recent developments could affect this confidence.

In the immediate fall-out of a rollback could be quite serious on all economic and commercial activities--industrial production, lay offs, agriculture operations and business. Power cuts and low voltages could recur.

The Chief Minister said pro-reforms approach adopted by his Government had helped garner funds to the tune of Rs.6,000 crores from different agencies like World Bank, KFW, DFID, OEFC and the Power Finance Corporation. Reforms were a pre-condition for these lending agencies.

Once the State backtracked on reforms, sources of funds would dry up. Even Government agencies like Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation insisted on reforms for advancing money. Only the other day, the Karnataka Government signed a MoU with the Union Ministry of Energy agreeing not only to implement reforms but stick to a schedule as well.

Hit by the 11th Finance Commission recommendations on the one side and burdened by other heavy financial commitments, the Government would find it extremely difficult to cushion further demands, he said, renewing his plea for understanding.

On the Opposition demand for suspending tariff hike until the House Committee gave it as report, he said the committee had no authority to do so. Answering questions, he conceded that not undertaking a `preparatory exercise' to educate the people before hiking the tariff was `our biggest mistake'.

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