DMK, AIADMK to blame for power sector losses: Goyal

CHENNAI: Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday blamed the "corrupt" DMK and AIADMK and their party-led governments for losses in the power sector in Tamil Nadu.
"For the past so many years, Tamil Nadu has only seen corruption, corruption and corruption... there is a race to the bottom between the two, as if they are fighting for a certificate in corruption," Goyal said while blaming DMK and AIADMK of "ruining" the state during their respective rules.
Highlighting statistics from 2008-09 when DMK was in power, Goyal said state discoms had suffered losses ranging between Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore in the subsequent years.He alleged that both the DMK and AIADMK governments were responsible for the losses accrued by power generation companies.
On AIADMK's poll promise of giving 100 units of free power to all, he said such "free power will be no power" in the future.
Goyal, who had earlier created a flutter with his chief minister "Jayalalithaa is inaccesible" remarks, made similar allegations against DMK president M Karunanidhi, saying the two parties were run by "leaders who are disconnected" from the people.
"I have not met him (Karunanidhi) as he is not in government. But I suspect he will be as inaccessible (as Jayalalithaa). I will challenge anybody, the media; does anybody has the access either to Chief Minister or the opposition leader (Karunanidhi)? Can you meet them? You can't. I don't think you can. Both these parties are run by leaders who are disconnected with the people of the state," he said.
He said BJP was the "only party" whose leaders were available to the people and claimed that they would address public grievances honestly and transparently.
He accused the state government of not coming forward to implement the Centre's UDAY scheme that aims at benefiting discoms. Goyal said the implementation of the scheme will result in a saving of over Rs 22,000 crore for the people of Tamil Nadu. He added that he had personally met a state delegation led by state Power Minister Natham R Viswanathan in 2015 and had explained the benefits of the scheme. Even his officials had made efforts to follow-up with the state.
Underlining the Centre's commitment to ensure adequate power supply to Tamil Nadu, Goyal said the transmission network between north and south India has been expanded by 71 per cent and three coal blocks have been allotted for the state to ensure there was no shortage in the state's coal-fired power stations.
With both DMK and AIADMK offering freebies in their election manifestos, Goyal urged the voters "not to get swayed away by these small gifts" and asked them to vote for the BJP.
"Don't get carried away by false propaganda and freebies," he said.
Earlier, he released the manifesto of the party's state unit President Tamilisai Sounderrajan for her Virugambakkam constituency.