Government Flexes Muscles over Power Allocation Issue
Patna: Nov. 7, 2007
Annoyed by the agreement reached by the Indian Railways and the National Thermal Power Corporation to set up a 1000 megawatt power station in Navinagar in Bihar, the state government blasted the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for reaching a deal by ignoring the broad interests of the state and short-circuiting the NDA government for political gains.
State Energy Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav, while talking to reporters on Wednesday, said that the state was reconsidering its decision to provide land and water to the Navinagar project in view of the fact that Bihar was allocated 58 megawatt of 1000 megawatt power to be produced at the new plant.
"This is in clear violation of the energy protocols that states that the state is entitled to get a minimum of 10% of the total power generation. By that account, Bihar's legitimate share comes to 100 megawatt and if the state does not get at least that much, the state will rethink its decision to go along with the plan.
"The land is ours, the water is ours, and we are the one at the short end of the stick. This discrimination is not going to work anymore. If we do not get our fair share, we have no problem abandoning the whole project," Yadav said.
The Energy Minister lampooned the Railway Minister for calling the November 5 agreement between the Railways and the NTPC in Ranchi as 'historic'.
"Lalu Prasad Yadav is forgetting that the Memorandum of Understanding between the Railways and the NTPC was signed as early as in October of 2002 when Nitish Kumar was the Railway Minister. In 2003 an amount of Rs. 10 crore was earmarked for this project alone. Nitish Kumar also laid the foundation stone of the project but because of the Parliamentary elections in 2004 and the elections code of conduct in process, the project got delayed and now Railway Minister is taking the credit for the entire project," said Yadav adding it was Lalu's government that continued to pose hurdle in the advancement of Navinagar power plant project.
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