GNA power row: Satheesan says no formal agreement signed

Thiruvananthapuram, Amid an escalating political row over the state's move to purchase electricity, Keralam Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Wednesday said no agreement had been signed with the private GNA platform for power purchase and questioned how the government could withdraw from a deal that was never formally entered into.

GNA power row: Satheesan says no formal agreement signedAppearing to hold a transferred KSEB Managing Director responsible for the move to procure power through GNA, Satheesan said the Kerala State Electricity Board had written to him warning that the state could face prolonged power cuts from November if no decision was taken on purchasing power.

"Later, another team examined the situation and said there was no such problem," he said. Satheesan said that there were also news reports criticising the time he was taking to come out with a decision and questioned whether these were attempts to make him hurriedly sign the agreement with GNA.

"No one can force me to take a decision hurriedly by such tactics," Satheesan said, adding that he was not sitting on the file, but was "studying" the matter. He made the remarks while responding to allegations surrounding the government's proposed power purchase through the GNA platform.

Satheesan, speaking at a press conference here after a cabinet meeting chaired by him, referred to the new reports and remarks by Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Pinarayi Vijayan that the government withdrew from the agreement with GNA, and said there was no contract with the private platform to begin with.

"There was no contract, so where is the question of withdrawing from it," he contended. Vijayan, a day ago, had claimed that the recent power crisis in the state was created "artificially" by the UDF government to purchase power from a private entity at huge rates, the burden of which consumers will have to bear.

He had also claimed that the government later decided against purchasing power from GNA due to serious questions raised by the opposition regarding irregularities in the power deal and the potential for financial losses to the exchequer.

The LoP had also accused the CM of keeping state Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph in the dark regarding the entire matter. Refuting the claims, Satheesan said that the Electricity Department sent him a file saying the state can either purchase power from the Himachal Pradesh government at around ₹14 or from GNA at around ₹8 per unit.

He said that the file also mentioned that the power from Himachal Pradesh has gone to Rajasthan by October 18 at a rate of over ₹15 per unit and therefore, the only option before the government was GNA. "GNA was the better option also in comparison.

Then we decided to examine if there was a requirement to buy power currently. The Electricity Minister was right when he said there was no requirement currently. Therefore, we decided not to purchase it," the CM contended.

He also claimed that the power cut crisis experienced by the state was due to the lack of long term planning or any electricity purchase agreement by the previous LDF government. He said that during the last 10 years, the then LDF government did nothing to increase the state's power generation or set up battery storage units.

"The power we generate during the daytime is from the solar panels set up on rooftops of people's homes. But there is no option to store it, unlike in other states," he contended. Instead, the then government was more interested in short-term purchase of power, instead of entering into a long-term agreement.