Eye on elections, BJP govt to buy power worth Rs 2,200 cr

BHOPAL: With an eye on the 2013 assembly elections in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is planning to purchase power worth Rs 2,200 crore for the next 18 months from October 1 this year.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government is embarking on an initiative to minimize the sufferings of the common man in a bid to make a hat-trick of electoral wins.
MP power management company (MPPMC) has already placed an order with the Power Trading Company (PTC) to buy 400 mw power daily from October 1 to March 31, 2014.The state is going to buy power at an average Rs 4.15 per unit, a top official of company said. "We are going to buy 300 mw energy for Rs 4.19 per unit and the rest for Rs 4.11 per unit," he added
"We are going to get the working capital for power purchase from the state government," he said adding that the MP cabinet has already cleared the plan, last week.
Though the polls are supposed to take place in November next year, it appears the government has realized that power might become a big poll plank in the polls and it is not prepared to take any chance. Right now a number of thermal projects of government and private sector companies were coming up and some are likely to be commissioned before polls.
In December 2003, the Congress lost power in MP after electricity crisis became a major issue in the assembly polls. Then after BJP's clean sweep, the outgoing chief minister Digvijay Singh had said that his party had received an 'electricity shock'. Though, the BJP came to power promising round-the-clock power, things have not changed much and the rural areas of the state are subjected to power cuts ranging from one to twelve hours, especially during Rabi season when electricity demand climbs to 8500 mega watt (MW).
During the Rabi season, the agriculture load in MP usually shoots up, fanning a power shortage of more than 2500 mw, leading to heavy load-shedding.
It is surprising that despite the financial health of the three distribution companies (discoms), the state government is going for the power purchase. To run the show, the three companies had sought aggregate revenue requirement (ARR) of Rs 25,939 crore from the MP Electricity Regulatory Commission, but MPERC admitted ARR of Rs 15,667 crore while clearing 7.17 per cent power tariff hike for this fiscal, five month ago.
The revenue collection, especially from rural areas and distribution losses of the three discoms were also high in MP, officials said.