Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Monday denied the DMK’s charge in the Assembly that her AIADMK government was buying power at a high cost.
Responding to the observations of I. Periyasamy of the DMK during the debate on the demands for grants for the Energy Department, she said the DMK government had bought power at a high cost though the price was low. But, now, the price had gone up three times. “Yet, we have been buying electricity at a low cost,” she said.
Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan said that when the DMK was in power (2006-11), the average cost of power purchased was Rs. 6.60 a unit, whereas the present rate was Rs. 5 a unit of power bought from other States and Rs. 5.5 a unit produced within Tamil Nadu.
Giving details of power purchase, Mr. Viswanathan, while initiating the debate, said that under the medium-term purchase arrangements, 500 megawatt (MW) was being procured since June 2013. Under long-term arrangements for 15 years, agreements had been signed to get 3,330 MW. Of this, 224 MW was being obtained. As much as 1,500 MW would flow from the next month, and the rest would be available the next year.
As for power supply, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that when she was the Chief Minister during 1991-96 and 2001-06, Tamil Nadu had had surplus power. It was during the DMK regime (2006-2011) that the State became power-deficit and plunged into darkness. “After I assumed charge for the third time in 2011, we have set right the situation of power cut and the debt left behind by the DMK government.”
