Telangana Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka defended the state government’s handling of the power sector on Wednesday but did not directly say whether the proposed Rs 5,420-crore true-up charges would be withdrawn, leaving the consumer-burden question unresolved.
The charges have faced opposition from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, with BRS leader T Harish Rao warning of a fresh people’s agitation. When reporters asked Bhatti Vikramarka to respond to the opposition, he handed the microphone to officials, who said unpaid power-purchase arrears for 2022-23 and 2023-24 had increased the financial burden on the distribution companies.
The officials said the charges were being imposed in accordance with Supreme Court orders and as part of financial rationalisation. However, Bhatti Vikramarka later left without answering a direct question on whether the government would reconsider or withdraw the proposed charges. The development leaves the immediate position on how the amount will be recovered from consumers unclear.
The dispute reflects the financial pressures facing Telangana’s electricity distribution system, where the state government is balancing supply commitments, purchase costs and the viability of discoms. The officials’ explanation linked the proposed charges to arrears from earlier financial years, while the minister focused his response on the record of the previous BRS government.
Bhatti Vikramarka accused Harish Rao and the BRS of making false allegations about power supply and privatisation. He ruled out any plan to privatise or list Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited, Telangana State Transmission Corporation Limited or the discoms. He also said the Congress government had ensured uninterrupted power supply.
The minister said peak electricity demand had reached 19,892 MW in September, nearly 4,000 MW higher than the level recorded a year earlier. He attributed a fall of about 2,000 MW in hydel generation to El Niño conditions. The figures indicate the scale of demand and supply pressures being managed by the state power system, although the report did not provide a breakdown of how the higher demand affected tariffs or discom finances.
Bhatti Vikramarka also criticised the previous government’s handling of the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant. He said construction had been taken up without assured coal supplies and questioned agreement involving Singareni’s Grade-9 coal. He asked whether adequate reserves had existed when the agreement was made.
The minister claimed that the Congress government had intervened to restart mining in the Naini coal block and had taken credit for commissioning two units of the Yadadri plant last year and two more this year. He also alleged that 14 Singareni coal blocks available during the BRS regime had become inactive. These claims were made as part of the government’s defence of its power-sector record and were not accompanied in the report by the documentary evidence Bhatti Vikramarka said would be released.
Bhatti Vikramarka said the government would publish documentary evidence relating to alleged lapses in the Yadadri project and warned that mistakes made by the previous administration would be exposed. The proposed true-up charges, the government’s documentary response and the next steps on recovering unpaid power-purchase costs are expected to determine the immediate course of the dispute.
