JOIN USUnion Power Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday denied he had promised 1500 MW power from the national grid to Karnataka.
He made the clarification after news reports on Sunday (August 12) mentioned that Karnataka would be getting additional power from the Centre due to the present shortage.
In his letter to Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje, Moily said, “While interacting with the media I had discussed about the power situation in Karnataka including transmission loss. But I have not promised to allot additional power to the State”.
On the sidelines of a conference, the minister had said, “The Energy Minister (Shobha) has apprised me of the situation in the State. We are exploring all possibilities to help the State.”
False promise
Karandlaje reacted to Moily’s letter saying that in the prevailing scenario the Centre cannot provide 1500 MW power to Karnataka as the transmission line capacity for four southern states was just 750 MW. She also charged Moily with making a false promise to the State.
In his letter, Moily said the minister should make statements keeping in mind Centre-State relations in the power sector.
Karandlaje had recently requested Moily to allocate additional power to Karnataka from the unallocated quota as the State was running short of 1,000 MW during peak hours.