Govt must consider power firm's plea: HC

bangalore: the karnataka high court on wednesday directed the state government to reconsider nagarjuna power corporation (npc)''s plea seeking approval of the power purchase agreement (ppa) with kptc and with regard to the guarantee. justices r.v. raveendran and k.l. manjunath allowed in part an appeal filed by the state government against the single judge''s order on august 28, 2001, on a writ petition filed by npc challenging the ppa''s rejection.the npc challenged the government order on may 8, 2001, in pursuance of a letter from the chief minister. it contended that after discussion between the kptc and government, it had been permitted to establish, operate and run the rs 5,500-crore capital coal based thermal generating unit. the unit has a potential of generating 1,015 mw of electricity and employing 3,000 persons. after obtaining the permission, the npc obtained consent of several statutory bodies, entered into the ppa and fought for government approval of the government for it as well as for the state support agreement (escrow). the government, however, rejected the same by its order. partly allowing the government appeal, the division bench upheld the direction for reconsideration, but first set aside the single judge''s ruling. the court directed that the company''s request be reconsidered for ppa and state support agreement within four months.