Cong. walk-out over CM's power bills

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, MARCH 27. Congress(I) members staged a walk-out in the Assembly on Monday demanding that the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, own moral responsibility and resign for his alleged failure to pay Rs. 1.43 lakhs in power bills for his agricultural pumpsets in Nellore district.

Turning down the demand, the Chief Minister offered to immediately pay up the arrears if the report published in a newspaper regarding his electricity dues was correct. Asking the Chairman and Managing Director of APTRANSCO to disconnect power supply to his pumpsets, he said he would remit the penalty as well as reconnection charges.

Mr. Naidu dubbed the demand for his stepping down as an exposure of the Congress(I)'s political bankruptcy. He said he had received a public mandate to rule the State barely six months ago and there was no question of his resignation since he was accountable to the people alone.

He also rejected the suggestion for suspending the CMD of APTRANSCO and lower level officials for allegedly being lenient towards him. He pointed out that agricultural connections were treated differently from domestic and commercial categories and disconnection rarely ordered for non-payment of bills. Yet, he was prepared to submit himself to the APTRANSCO's procedures and to other legal provisions.

The issue came up during supplementaries to a question tabled by Mr. P. Indra Reddy (Congress-I) regarding the use of domestic power for running a dental clinic by the legal advisor of APTRANSCO. The Minister for Energy, Mr. K. Subbarayudu, said a case had been booked for pilferage of energy and Rs. 2.70 lakhs assessed as revenue loss.

The question took a different turn when Dr. M. V. Mysoora Reddy (Congress-I) asked how the Government expected people to pay the bills when the Chief Minister himself had been avoiding payment for two years.

Amid noisy scenes, the Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, asked the Chief Minister whether his action was proper or just at a time when the arrears of APTRANSCO ran into crores of rupees. Pointing out that ordinary farmers were punished for a similar offence by confiscation of pumpsets and filing of criminal charges, he wondered whether there were different sets of laws for the high and the low.

Admitting that there were no different laws for him, he said he would verify his power bills, clear them immediately and avoid such lapses in future.

Matters did not subside after the Congress(I) MLAs staged a noisy walk out. The Chief Minister, while denying prior knowledge about non-payment of his bills, pointed out that APTRANSCO's dues from the agricultural sector amounted to Rs. 270 crores. These arrears were normally collected before the kharif and rabi seasons.

Talking to reporters after the walk-out, Congress MLAs demanded that the Chief Minister should step down owning moral responsibility for failing to pay up electricity dues.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Regional
Next     : Decision on tobacco crop holiday likely on April 3