Minister rejects Cong. charges on PPAs

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 14. The Minister for Energy, Mr. K. Subbarayudu, today denied allegations of ``irregularities and loose ends,'' made by Congress MLAs after their scrutiny of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), and reiterated that the TDP Government had only modified some of them for increased revenue.

At a press conference here, Mr. Subbarayudu said the Congress MLAs had belied the State Government's expectation of a positive contribution to the PPAs by the Congress, and regretted that the MLAs seemed to be bothered only about ``a full stop here, or a comma there.'' No Government in any State, but the TDP here had the distinction of having put up for scrutiny such agreements, he said.

On the question of why the Government had not collected penalty for delay in project work, which would have netted Rs. 24 crores, from Ispat Power Limited alone, the Minister said it was generally only in the final cycle of project work that such a penalty would be imposed and collected and added that the project was just in its first cycle.

On the other hand, the Government had bargained and brought down the fixed cost from Re. 1.22 paise, to 96 paise, a move that would bring in Rs. 639 crores.

Mr. Subbarayudu said the TDP Government had only modified the PPAs to the extent it was required, for improvement, while still being in the framework of the guidelines laid down by the Centre in 1992, when Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister.

Our Special Correspondent writes:

In another important development in the power sector, some electricity engineers led by Mr. C.S.R. Sarma, one of the signatories to the tripartite agreement, formed a rival association.

Engineers from 21 districts assembled at Telugu Lalitha Kala Thoranam in response to the call given by Mr. Sarma and, opposing the strike move, elected a rival body - AP Transco Engineers' Association - with Mr. Sarma as secretary-general. Mr. P. Kodanda Ramaiah and Mr. E. Manoj Kumar were elected president and treasurer respectively.

Trouble arose when office-bearers of the APSEB Engineers' Association, which Mr. Sarma represented as secretary-general and signed the agreement, and the APSEB Assistant Engineers' Association went to the venue. Mr. P. Ratnakar Rao, president of AEs' association, entered the venue but not before arguments with the security. Noisy scenes were witnessed as both groups traded charges.

Mr. Sarma then took his office-bearers to a private premises where resolutions were adopted formally supporting the reforms and opposing the strike.

In the evening, Mr. A. K. Kutty, and Mr. P.M.K. Gandhi, CMD and Managing Director, AP Transco and AP Genco respectively, called Mr. Ratnakar Rao's association and the APSEB Engineers' Association for talks but they did not take place.

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