Hyderabad: Former minister T Harish Rao on Monday accused the Congress govt of pushing Telangana towards a severe power crisis due to its lack of foresight and failure in governance. He said farmers staged protests in front of electricity substations in 11 districts on Monday, expressing their anger over frequent power disruptions. Harish Rao said unscheduled and unannounced power cuts have become a daily norm across the state, causing hardships to farmers, students, traders and people from all sections of society.“The crisis is entirely man-made and result of Congress govt’s failure to maintain adequate coal stocks for thermal power stations. The BRS had repeatedly warned the govt through presentations and supporting data that thermal plants were facing a serious shortage of coal despite the govt’s claim that 40 lakh tonnes of coal were available,” Harish Rao said.Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan on Thursday, the ex-minister said major thermal power stations, including Kothagudem, Kakatiya, Bhadradri and Yadadri, have coal reserves sufficient for only six to seven days. He said power generation had already stopped in units 1 and 4 of the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant due to coal shortages, while generation at the Bhadradri Thermal Power Station had also been affected because of poor maintenance.Questioning the govt’s handling of the power sector, Harish Rao said Telangana’s peak demand currently stood at around 15,000 MW, while the state had a thermal generation capacity of 7,180 MW. However, only 3,190 MW of thermal power was generated on the previous day, meaning that only 44 per cent of the available capacity was being utilised while 56 per cent remained idle.He alleged that the govt had failed in coal procurement, reservoir management and maintenance of thermal power stations despite repeated warnings about possible drought conditions.
