Minister Senthil Balaji said he has no need to answer the question about the BJP leader Annamalai criticizing for getting 4% commission.
Coimbatore: A ceremony was held at the Coimbatore District Collectorate to issue free electricity to farmers and cheques providing relief assistance to children who have lost their parents due to coronavirus infection.
Minister of Power and Energy Senthil Balaji attended and provided relief aid to the beneficiaries.
Speaking later at the event, the minister said that Chief Minister Stalin was running a self-governing regime. He said that the Chief Minister has ordered to immediately fulfil any request which emerged from Coimbatore district. He also assured that the if the demands of all parties like traders and the general public will be met 100 per cent.
Following this, Senthil Balaji interacted the press, during which he said, in Coimbatore district various works are being carried out on behalf of the Electricity Board at an estimated cost of 203 crore rupees. He stated that the Electricity Board had a debt of Rs 1.59 lakh crore and was paying only Rs 15,000 crore a year as interest. He said when they studied the reason for this it came to light that 50 per cent was spent by the previous state government on purchasing electricity.
He added that the own installed capacity has increased by only 53 MW in 10 years. Steps are being taken to increase production. The gap between demand and supply in production is 2,500 MW. He said steps are taken to increase solar power generation and gas power generation to minimise the gap. He informed the media that under the DMK regime steps are taken to implement projects which are on paper.
When asked about the BJP leader's criticism of Annamalai for getting 4% commission, he said, "I do not have to reply for him. He had put an end to this yesterday with the words of Periyar. Well, at least I didn't go down without explaining myself first. He speaks like this to show existence without evidence. I do not want to waste time on all this."
As far as the thermal power plants in Tamil Nadu are concerned, the power generation capacity is 4,320 MW and only 1,800 MW was generated during the last regime. "We have raised this to 3,500 MW within 5 months of the government taking office," he said. The demand for one day power generation is 60 thousand tons of coal and the required stock of coal is for 4 days. In Tamil Nadu, there will be no shortage of coal and there will be a balanced power supply, he stated. “Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is monitoring this daily,” added the minister.
When asked about the recruitment of people from the north to various positions in the Electricity Board, he said that out of 1.46 lakh posts in the Electricity Board, 56,000 posts were vacant and the government is working with transparency to reduce the cost of the Electricity Board. He said these issues would be brought to the notice of the Chief Minister when new appointments are made.
TASMAC said it had taken action to lay off 134 vendors, who are selling at high prices in stores. “Of the 505 promises made in the assembly elections manifesto, 202 are fulfilled. Departmental requests will be met gradually. Chief Minister would take note of the situation after the review meeting on the distribution of drinking water under the Suez 24*7 drinking water scheme in Coimbatore and assure that appropriate action will be taken.” Minister Senthil Balaji said.
This was followed by a review meeting at the District Collector's office.
The meeting was attended by MP PR Natarajan, Shanmugasundar and Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan.
