Randhawa urges Capt to cancel PPAs with pvt firms, book officers for faulty clauses

Cooperation and jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday urged chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to cancel the power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed

Cooperation and jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Tuesday urged chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to cancel the power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed during the SAD-BJP government with the private companies running thermal power plants in Punjab.

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Randhawa said the then government deleted certain clauses in the agreements which put an extra burden of hundreds of crores up rupees on the consumers. He also demanded registration of cases against the Punjab government officials who signed the “faulty” agreements between 2007 and 2009 during the tenure of SAD-BJP government.

Randhawa was talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday. On SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s claim that the draft of the PPAs was approved by the then Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, Randhawa said the then SAD-BJP government tweaked the clauses in favour of the private firms. Citing an example, Randhawa said the draft of PPA that came from the Centre had the clause of purchasing 70% of the total power generated by the private plant and the rest they could sell outside the state. “The SAD-BJP government changed the clause and agreed to purchase the entire power which led to exorbitant fixed charges,” said the minister.

He said the state government has so far paid ₹6,500 crore as fixed charges to the private players it would be paying ₹25,000 crore in 25 years. He said the delayed charges of ₹1,250 crore were never recovered from the private companies.

“All these reasons contributed to higher power tariff which has made it difficult for the consumers to pay electricity bills,” said Randhawa.