In a big respite for the power-starved State of Telangana, neighbouring Chhattisgarh State has agreed to supply electricity to the State. An agreement to supply 1,000 MW power to Telangana has been signed following the high-level talks between the Chief Ministers of both the States.
K Chandrashekar Rao, who is under tremendous pressure because of power crisis, went to Chhattisgarh on Sunday and held two rounds of talks with his counter part Raman Singh. The agreement was signed by the two Chief Ministers in Raipur on Monday. Interestingly Raman Singh, who belongs to the BJP, also invited senior BJP leader from Telangana Bandaru Dattatreya to be present during the talks.
KCR, who after signing the agreement felicitated Raman Singh and his Cabinet, said that the relations between Chhattisgarh and Telangana is centuries old as they share a common culture. He profusely thanked the Chhattisgarh Government for its cooperation. “Chhattisgarh is still replete with the heritage of our Kakatiya dynasty,” he said. KCR recalled that in the past he raised the problems and issues of Chhattisgarh in New Delhi.
Though some infrastructure to help transmission of power from Chhattisgarh to Telangana exists, but new transmission lines will be required to fully utilise the help extended by Chhattisgarh. The Telangana Government has already indicated that it will prefer to bring this power via Maharashtra as those lines are better. The 1,000 MW power is likely to bring a big relief to the Government and people of Telangana, specially the farmers who are in a great distress because of the failure of monsoon and power crisis has made it difficult for the Government to provide seven-hour free supply to the farmers.
Opposition parties are also going for the jugular of the Government on the issue of farmers’ sufferings as they allege that the power crisis has forced more than 250 farmers of Telangana to commit suicide over the last five months.