Uninterrupted power supply being promised by the Chief Minister, K Chandrashekar Rao, may come after all with a rider – steep hike in power tariff.  Hinting at hiking power tariff by at least 25 per cent, if not more, the Chief Minister said in the Assembly on Tuesday said that the government was, however, yet to take a final call on the matter. Though the government was against raising the tariff, nevertheless it would  take the Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (TSERC) report into consideration.

The report is to be submitted soon. If the ERC recommends one rupee charge hike, the government may settle for 25 paise hike, and it is not wrong, Rao contended. He was intervening during a discussion on the Budget. Referring to the issue of Sileru Power Project, he said the government would wage legal battle to secure its due share from the project. To overcome the power problem, the government was planning to spend Rs 79,000 crore in a phased manner.

In this regard, he accused Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of deliberately stopping power from Sileru, Krishnapatnam and Hinduja projects. However, the government was aware that sourcing power from AP would cost the exchequer dearly. He said he would lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi on the issue of Sileru project.

Rao again reiterated that there would be no power cuts from May as all steps had been taken to tide over the crisis.  He flayed the Opposition Congress party for opposing the land sale, which was the practice of the previous government. He stated that the government was not averse to selling land to pool funds for development. To opposition leaders’ queries, he clarified that there should not be any doubt about the sale of land when there was a boom in real estate.