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Chandigarh, July 5
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal today defended the power purchase agreements (PPAs) inked with private thermal plants during the SAD-BJP tenure (2012-2017) as the need of that time and cheapest option available.
We set up plants after much thought due to a shortfall in power supply in 2007. PPAs were signed to buy power between Rs 2.86 and Rs 2.89 per unit, the cheapest at that time. —Sukhbir Singh Badal, SAD president
Joining the ongoing controversy over the power crisis faced by states allegedly because of PPAs, Sukhbir said the Capt Amarinder Singh government should annul the agreements but explain how would it meet the shortfall of 4,500 MW of electricity that Punjab would face afterwards.
Sukhbir said the Congress and AAP were merely politicising fixed charges, included in the PPAs, even though they knew the truth that this charge applied on private and government thermal plants and power purchased from outside the state.
He said the SAD-led government made Punjab power surplus and followed a standard PPA document created by the UPA government to establish captive thermal plants in the private sector.
Meanwhile, Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal today said the CM was touring Delhi to save his seat while the people of Punjab were suffering. — TNS
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