The government has handled highest ever intra-day peak load of power on the transmission and highest every daily energy consumption on Friday, March 8, with the two clocking at 15,623 megawatt and 305.19 million units, respectively, Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, who holds the portfolios of Finance and Energy, has said.
“The fact that the government is meeting higher demand of energy without any problems itself indicates that it is handling the people’s needs better than the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government,” Mr. Vikramarka said addressing a press conference here on Saturday.
Stating that the demand of energy was expected to go up to a maximum of 16,500 MW the Deputy CM said the government had made all arrangements to supply required energy. He asked the people to rest assured about getting uninterrupted and quality power supply and there was no truth, whatsoever, in the misinformation being spread by BRS.
Mr. Vikramarka said the government was planning to develop Telangana into a model State in the matter of green energy generation by focusing on alternative energy sources. Accordingly, the government was focusing on taking up solar, wind, hydel and pumped storage power plants, including establishing solar plants in the unused coal blocks and overburden dumps.
Further, they were planning to develop floating solar power generation capacity in the medium and major reservoirs without affecting the aquatic life. The Deputy CM stated that the authorities concerned were also told to study the possibility of developing solar power plants on the main canals network and canal bunds of the irrigation department.
GJ is continuous process
On Gruha Jyothi scheme, Mr. Vikramarka said the Opposition parties were spreading misinformation intentionally and reiterated that all white ration cardholders (below poverty line households) would get free energy supply up to 200 units a month, if their consumption was up to 200 units and they would not be required to pay bills.
He pointed that non-issuance of new ration cards by the previous BRS government for the last 10 years could have denied the scheme benefit to some families who moved out after getting married and the process of applying for the scheme was a continuous process.
Referring to Rythu Bandhu, the Deputy CM said the previous government had wasted ₹20,000 crore by extending the scheme benefit even to hillocks and barren lands held by wealthy families. The government policy was to encourage only those who were engaged in agriculture.
Mr. Vikramarka stated that the government had already disbursed the benefit to farmers with landholding up to 3 acres and the process of extending it for landholding between 3-4 acres was in progress and it would soon be given for farmers with 4-5 acres landholding.
