Sukhbir challenges CM to cancel PPAs with pvt thermal plants

Says agreement was drafted by Manmohan Singh govt and Akali govt implemented it verbatim

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday challenged chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to cancel power purchase agreements (PPAs) entered into by the previous state government with private thermal plants, if anything wrong was found, while adding that it was the then Congress government at the Centre that had drafted them.

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The SAD chief also alleged that money changed hands and private players benefitted under the Congress government, which “practised deliberate laxity” in pursuing disputes involving ₹2,500 crore on account of coal washing charges and ₹1,602 crore tribunal award.

Addressing a press conference here, Badal said: “Punjab and the interests of Punjabis are paramount to the SAD. In case there is anything wrong in the PPAs, they should be cancelled. In fact it is strange why this was not done for three years. The entire PPA and how it was drafted under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh should be probed.”

Badal said simultaneously an independent probe should be conducted into the undue benefit of ₹1,400 crore allegedly given to private thermal plant managements and an additional benefit of ₹1,100 crore expected to be given on account of coal washing charges, which had been “falsely” claimed by them.

He said the Congress government did not pursue the case against the release of coal washing charges to private plants appropriately in the Supreme Court.

“This is a case of match-fixing. It is because of this underhand deal with private plants that the state will have to pay ₹2,500 crore to them, despite the fact that during the previous SAD-BJP government, the case was properly pursued and the contention of private plants was rejected both by the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission and Appellate Tribunal for Electricity,” he said.

Badal said, in the second case, the Congress government’s petition for review of the ₹1,602 crore dispute was rejected by the Punjab and Haryana high court because it did not challenge the award of the tribunal, dismissing its application for two-and-a-half years.

The SAD president said if the common man and the industry were suffering in Punjab due to repeated power tariff hikes it was due to the corrupt practices of the Congress government.