A fierce debate was witnessed in the Gujarat Assembly on Wednesday between the legislators of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress. Let us inform that the Congress attacked the government for the state government signing a revised agreement related to its power purchase with Adani Power Limited (APL).
The BJP government in Gujarat said that the supplementary agreement was due to the changed scenario of the coal market. But the Congress alleged that the state government has benefited APL under the guise of increased coal rates. Due to which he was paid an additional payment of Rs 2,178 crore. Let us inform that in the Gujarat Assembly, Congress MLAs raised anti-BJP slogans.
The Congress alleges that the ruling party is favoring the private power company. On a question by Congress MLA Rajesh Gohil, Minister of State for Power Mukesh Patel informed that the Gujarat government had entered into a 25-year agreement with APL in 2006-’07 to buy power. Subsequently, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) entered into a supplementary agreement with APL to revise the tariff.
Patel said efforts are being made to increase the generation capacity of state-run power plants. In this discussion, senior Congress MLA and leader of the party in the House CJ Chavda said that the average generation capacity of 15 state-owned power stations in Gujarat is around 9,000 MW.
He alleged that against the generation capacity of about 9,000 MW, these power stations are generating only 3,000 MW of electricity. Chavda said that by revising the electricity rates in the agreement with the company, the BJP government of the state benefitted crores of rupees to the private company.
Minister Mukesh Patel said that the government is buying power from private companies as the cost of coal is becoming very expensive due to transportation cost. He said that the process of upgrading the old power stations of the state government is on.
At the same time, Energy Minister Kanu Desai said that in 2007, Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) had signed an agreement with Adani Power to buy power at the rate of Rs 2.89 and Rs 2.35 per unit.
Desai said the rate change for the rest of the contract was done in 2018 and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had also approved the new agreement. Registering a protest over the move, Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani said that the state government was spending government money to buy ‘expensive’ power from private companies.