Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday slammed former chief minister and BRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao for “spreading lies” about the power sector in Telangana nd asked him if he was ready for a debate on the power situation.
Bhatti, who holds the power portfolio, said in a statement that Rao was making several claims on the sector and blaming the Congress government.
“He says Congress leaders were accusing the then BRS government of buying electricity from Chhattisgarh at Rs 13 per unit while it paid paid Rs 3.90 per unit. Te actual price that the BRS government paid was Rs 20 per unit. I am ready for a debate on this with Rao,” he said.
He said that Rao was also lying on other issues related to the power sector including claims that soon after the BRS lost power, electricity cuts had become a norm.
“There have been no power cuts since the Congress came to power in December. Poor quality and maintenance of lines, transformers and other assets in the last 10 years led to interruptions due to technical faults which are now being attended to by discoms,” Bhatti said.
The Deputy Chief Minister said there was also no truth in the claim that it was the BRS government which had transformed Hyderabad into a ‘power island.’ This scheme, Bhatti said, was taken up after the 2012 grid collapse and was in place before the formation of Telangana.
