PPAs Inquiry: Narasimha Reddy Commission Reviewing All Submissions

Hyderabad: The Justice Narasimha Reddy commission has started reviewing all the submissions — from officials, non-officials, experts and the public — as part of its inquiry into alleged irregularities in the power purchase agreements by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government.

The commission was constituted by the A. Revanth Reddy-led government on March 13 to probe into the power purchase agreements entered with the Chhattisgarh government in the setting up of Yadadri and Bhadradri thermal power plants.

Former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had initially sought time to submit his report.

After the commission set a deadline, KCR gave a 12-page reply to the commission last Saturday. (June 15). Later, Chandrashekar Rao said the commission was acting in a biased manner.

Chandrashekar Rao claimed his government followed all the guidelines initiated by the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) formed as per the Electricity Act of 2003.

However, Telangana Jana Samithi president Prof. M Kodandaram and Electricity Employees Joint Action Commission chairman K. Raghu charged that the PPAs entered by the BRS government does not have ERC approval.

When the state insisted to speed up giving approval for PPAs citing severe power shortage in the state, the ERC asked the government to make 16 changes in the PPAs and gave a provisional approval, they clarified.

Raghu gave a powerpoint presentation on irregularities in the power sector during the BRS regime in the state before the Justice Narasimha Reddy commission. They have clearly stated that the BRS government did not follow the rules while signing the PPAs with Chhattisgarh.

The commission will go through all the information it has received and will submit a final report to the state government with its recommendations.