Giving merchant power status to Hindujas harmful: Dr. JP

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said today that the Government move to extend merchant power status to the Hinduja Power Project at Visakhapatnam is highly detrimental to State’s interests.

In a media statement, Dr. JP pointed out that the State Government, which allocated land at a highly subsidized rate and facilitated coal linkage, is entitled to buy the entire power generated at the Hinduja plant at the price charged by NTPC’s Simhadri power plant, as agreed upon earlier. If it now concedes merchant power status to the Hinduja project, it will have to reconcile itself to allocation of a fraction of the power it produces.

The 1000-mw plant produces on an average 20 million units of power a day. If the State Government has to buy the entire Hinduja power at even one rupee more per unit than that charged by NTPC’s Simhadri plant, the extra burden works out to Rs.2 crore a day or more than Rs.700 crore a year.

Dr. JP once again faulted the Government for planning to establish a power generation capacity of nearly 46,000 mw against the requirement of about 15,000 mw. Of the 46,000 mw planned, 28000 mw will come from merchant power plants.

Why should the Government dispossess people of their precious land and subject them to unwarranted pollution when there is no need for such massive power generation, asked Dr. JP.

The power exported from merchant power plants will facilitate industrialization and job creation in other States. The Government with its skewed priorities sees nothing wrong in inflicting unwarranted suffering on the people of the State, Dr. JP commented.

The Lok Satta will soon constitute a panel of experts to go into the whole gamut of electricity generation issues, and suggest a rational, viable, environment and people-friendly policy for new power plants.