Amend Uday, Jayalalithaa tells Piyush Goyal

Chennai: Asking the Centre to consider amendments proposed by the Tamil Nadu Government for its participation in the Uday scheme, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Friday told Union power minister Piyush Goyal that a committee headed by the Electricity minister would hold further talks with him on the issue.
During a meeting with Mr Goyal at the Secretariat here, the CM recalled her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month during which she had raised issues like doing away with the requirement of quarterly revision of tariffs to offset fuel price changes and ensure that the finances of the state are not adversely affected while taking over the debt of TANGEDCO.

Talking about the power situation in the state, she said Tamil Nadu has added 8,432.5 MW to the state grid during the last 5 years, making it not only a power sufficient state but also a power surplus state. She also told Mr Goyal that the state has an installed capacity of 7,600 MW of wind power and is in a position to sell wind power to other states which require to fulfil their Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO).

“The Chief Minister has therefore reiterated that it is absolutely essential to provide a dedicated green corridor to export the surplus power to other States,” an official release said.

Ms Jayalalithaa had last week written to the Prime Minister regarding the issue.
Mr Goyal, who had created a stir during the Assembly elections by calling the CM “inaccessible”, a comment that drew sharp criticism from his own cabinet colleagues M Venkaiah Naidu and Nirmala Sitharaman, is understood to have revived the Union Government’s invitation to Tamil Nadu to participate in the Uday scheme.

“The Chief Minister requested that the Government of India may consider the request of Tamil Nadu Government positively. The Chief Minister informed that a team headed by the Minister for Electricity, Government of Tamil Nadu consisting of Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, CMD, TANGEDCO and other senior officials will visit Delhi for detailed discussions with the Union Minister,” the release said after the meeting.

The committee is expected to hold extensive talks with Mr Goyal and senior officials of the ministry regarding their objections and how the state would lose its finances without any modifications to the current scheme.

The Tamil Nadu Government is vehemently opposing the Uday scheme describing the clause that allows price increases every quarter as a harsh imposition on the poor and has refused to participate in the scheme. During her meeting with Mr Modi last month, the Chief Minister had categorically told him that Uday scheme would be difficult to implement without “essential modifications” sought by the Tamil Nadu Government.

Mr Goyal had recently prodded the Tamil Nadu Government to join the Uday scheme after the Union Cabinet decided to extend deadline till March 31, 2017 the date for joining Uday, which has been signed by 18 States and one Union Territory so far.

During Friday’s meeting, Ms Jayalalithaa also requested that the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) extend cooperation by providing loans for both revenue and capital expenditure and also for the new power projects proposed