E-Paper
Congress alleges power scam by BJP govt in Rajasthan
Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday alleged that the BJP government in Rajasthan has paid ₹35,440 crore to private power companies helping them to profiteer
All India Congress Committee in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday alleged that the BJP government in Rajasthan has paid ₹35,440 crore to private power companies helping them to profiteer.
Addressing a press conference at Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee office, he said, “Shocking revelations of profiteering by four private electricity companies in Rajasthan at the cost of State exchequer and 7.5 crore people of Rajasthan reek of a ‘huge scam in power purchase’. RTI (right to information) documents reveal the sinister game of the Vasundhara Govt which ensured that State-owned power companies suffer losses, even as power companies of crony friends of the BJP profiteer at their expense.”
He said according to the RTI documents, people of Rajasthan have suffered a whopping loss of ₹6670 Cr by purchase of electricity at 100% above the contracted rates. Also, the Vasundhara Raje government has spent a whopping ₹35,440 crore etc. on account of power purchase from Private Companies.
Surejwala said, “the BJP government’s motto appears to be Let private electricity companies profiteer and let people and exchequer suffer.” He said culture of ‘Crony Capitalism’ perpetuated, propagated and promoted by the Vasundhara Raje government can be gauged from the fact that the BJP government purchased 94,188 million units power extra from the private companies by paying an astronomical amount of ₹35,440.11 crore more. The Congress government from 2008-2013 purchased 17243.33 million units by spending ₹6526.33 crore, while the BJP government from 2013-2018 purchased 111431.54 million units by spending ₹41966.44 crore.
He alleged that in five years, the Raje led government in Rajasthan spent ₹25,951.75 crore of public exchequer’s money to buy power from three major private companies including Raj West Power Limited (a subsidiary company of Sajjan Jindal, a known friend of prime minister Narendra Modi.), Adani Power Rajasthan Ltd (another known friend of Modi) and Coastal Gujarat (owned by the Tatas). He further added that the power purchase agreement (PPA) of the Raje government with Raj West Power Ltd was ₹2.089 per unit, but the government purchased power at the rate of ₹4.06 per unit. Similarly, PPA with Adani Power was ₹3.24 per unit, but purchased at ₹3.66 per unit and there was no PPA with Coastal Gujarat Ltd,but the rate was much less at ₹2.42 per unit. It shows that ₹5406.50 crore was paid more to Raj West Pvt Ltd and ₹1376.50 crore to Adani Power Raj Limited, which resulted in direct loss of ₹6783 crore of people of Rajasthan.
Surjewala also alleged that the Plant Load Factor (PLF) during the Congress government (2008-13) was 91, while PLF during the BJP government (2013-18) was 63, which was a conspiracy to buy private power at the cost of shutting down government owned power plants. He said the previous Congress government bought maximum power from Central government owned NTPC at lesser rates, while BJP purchased lesser units on higher rate.
He said, “As electricity prices spiral making it unaffordable for the ordinary Rajasthanis, the saga of management, bungling and corruption is out in the open. People will give a befitting reply in this election.”
BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said Congress had left loss of ₹76000 crore of power companies and made power companies bankrupt. During the Congress government villages were getting electricity for 4-6 hours and cities were getting electricity for 12 hours and now in BJP government power is being supplied for 22 hours especially in all villages. He said the loss of power companies has been reduced to ₹10,000 crore. Power generation and quality has increased, despite that if Congress is calling it a power same, then it is certainly joking and speaking lies.
