[1]Information minister D.K. Aruna on Tuesday accused the Telugu Desam of enacting a drama at the Secretariat on Monday night to divert people’s attention from the anniversary of Basheerbagh police firing incident. Addressing a press conference with civil supplies minister D. Sridhar Babu and women’s welfare minister Sunita Lakshma Reddy, Ms Aruna said TD lacks the moral right to talk about power crisis and supply of free power to farmers since the police under its government opened fire and killed activists protesting tariff hike on August 28, 2000.
Calling the TD dharna at the CM’s chambers objectionable, the ministers said TD leaders were lying to people by saying that Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy went away without giving a proper reply to their demands. Mr Sridhar Babu said the CM spent adequate time with the legislators and explained the reasons for the present power crisis, including a bad monsoon and shortage of gas supply. The CM also explained the state's efforts to get additional power from the central grid, he said.
“We have already succeeded in getting an additional 335 MW from NTPC,” Mr Sridhar Babu pointed out. The minister reminded TD leaders that Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy did not hide these facts from people. “He (the CM) made an open appeal to people to understand the reasons for the power deficit and urged the opposition not to politicise the energy crisis,” he added. Asked whether the government would compensate farmers if they lost crops due to erratic power supply, Mr Sridhar Babu said there are standard procedures to estimate crop loss and extend benefits to farmers, like input subsidy and rescheduling of loans, and those methods would be followed.
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