BRS accuses Telangana government of planning power-sector privatisation

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi has accused Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy of planning to privatise the State’s power utilities, including Singareni Collieries. Former Energy Minister G.

Jagadish Reddy made the allegation while speaking to reporters on Saturday. He claimed the government intended to reduce its holdings in power utilities and give control of Transco and the distribution companies to private firms. Reddy said such a move would allow what he described as “friendly” corporate companies to acquire State assets.

The source material did not include a response from the Telangana government to the allegation. He contrasted the current situation with the record of the then Telangana Rashtra Samithi, now the BRS, after the State was formed in 2014. According to Reddy, the previous government expanded power supply from less than 12 hours to round-the-clock supply for domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, and later for agriculture.

Reddy said this expansion followed investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure. He added that Transco was profitable while the distribution companies were loss-making because of government dues. The former minister argued that distribution privatisation had not succeeded elsewhere in India, citing Odisha and cities including Delhi and Mumbai.

He also said consumers had been made responsible for unpaid bills for other services, such as water supply. Reddy defended the previous government’s decision not to hand power-generation contracts to private firms, saying they had instead been awarded to Genco and BHEL. He also criticised the government’s discussion of G9-grade coal and alleged that Singareni was diverting good-quality coal, including G9 coal, to thermal plants in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

He questioned the argument for locating power plants near coal mines and pointed to plants at Vijayawada and Muddanur, as well as Singareni’s plan for a plant in Rajasthan. Reddy said a January 26 Singareni board meeting recorded that G9 coal was being mined at 13 of the company’s mines.