Cong. seeks probe into Transco losses

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, DEC. 12. The Congress has demanded a probe by a sitting Judge of the High Court into the huge losses being incurred continuously by the APTRANSCO in spite of a steep hike in power tariff, subsidies from the Government and systems improvement.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the APCC official spokesperson, Mr.K. Rosaiah, and six other party leaders said the APTRANSCO owed an explanation for heading towards a loss of Rs. 3,200 crores this year.

Mr. Rosaiah said the expenditure of Transco for 2000-2001 was put at Rs. 8,366 crores while the revenues were estimated at Rs. 5,448 crores. The tariff hike yielded Rs. 808 crores while the Government provided a subsidy of Rs. 16,724 crores. Another Rs. 500 crores was generated by improving the efficiency. A thorough enquiry was warranted to pinpoint the revenue leakages.

The Congress leaders alleged that the Union Minister for Food, Mr. Shanta Kumar's visit to the State did not help mitigate the problems of farmers. They said the State Government had no machinery nor money to procure 7 lakh tonnes of paddy out of 10 lakh tonnes promised to be procured directly from the farmers.

Mr. Rosaiah said tamarind worth Rs. 100 crores and chilli worth Rs. 350 crores were lying in cold storage in Anantapur and Guntur districts respectively. The State Government failed to impress upon the Centre the severity of the problem.

Mr. Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu, Dr.K.V.P. Ramachander Rao, Mohd Shabbir Ali, Mr.P. Sudhir Kumar and Mr.P. Prabhakar also participated in the press conference.

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