Thangamani refutes DMK leader's charges

Thoothukudi: “The opposition party leader, M K Stalin has leveled a wrong allegation against me and maintaining his stand as he seems to have perceived it as a prestige issue,” said the state electricity minister P Thangamani, adding, that the DMK and its allies in the state too have been making a false propaganda about coal stock with the thermal power plants.

Responding to media persons on Stalin's allegation after his inspection at the Tuticorin Thermal Power station (TTPS) and its coal yard in the port premises on Friday, Thangamani said that Stalin has made the allegation that the ministry has made a bogus energy allotment of '9.17 crore to purchase power from wind farms during the November and December when not even a single unit of wing power is generated.

Stalin has been repeating his allegation without properly understanding that it was a due to the government by a Thoothukudi-based private thermal power plant (IND Bharat), that had evaded paying the wheeling charges to Tangedco to the tune of '9.17 crore. The state Energy department has already filed a case in this regard against the private thermal power plant demanding the wheeling charges with 22 per cent interest,” said P. Thangamani, who added that the case is still pending in the High court.

“Without being aware of this detail, Stalin made this allegation against my ministry and now as it has become a prestige issue for him he seems to maintain his stand,” said the Electricity minister, who denied that thermal power stations in the state suspended power generation due to acute coal shortage.

“Now you can see yourself the coal stock here (at the coal yard),” shot back Mr. Thangamani to media persons and added that Tuticorin Thermal Power station (TTPS) in Thoothukudi that has five units each with the generation capacity of 210 mw each has 1,02,000 tones of coal required for six days and another shipment of coal from the central pool is expected on September 25. 

“The Central government too has allotted another sixteen wagons of coal in response to the Chief Minister's letter and once it arrived we could manage our coal stock for a minimum of 15 days,” clarified the Electricity minister, who stoutly denied that the state is undergoing power shortage.

“Despite we receiving only 3,300 mw against the central power allocation of 6,152 MW to the state, we manage the situation without power cuts as we get around 6,000 mw from non-conventional energy sources like the wind and solar farms and from our hydro power stations,” said the minister.

Moreover, the ongoing projects like the Udangudi super critical thermal power project, North Chennai and the expansion of Ennore thermal power station would be completed by 2022 to add 4,000 mw additional to the state grid, the minister added.