CHANDRABABU NAIDU’S LEFT TURN

New Delhi, 25 September 2006

HYDERABAD, September 26 (INFA): Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu, the high priest of reforms, is now very keen to do an about turn in a serious bid to get closer to the Left parties.

Naidu’s turn, after steering his party towards the right with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime for six years is bound to raise the hackles of his Congress critics who see his new-found love for comrades to be yet another instance of his trademark opportunism.

After his party’s debacle in the 2004 Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, which catapulated the Congress into power in the State and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre, Naidu dumped the BJP before the civic elections in 2005.

But things did not improve for his party and he decided to woo the CPI-M and CPI into an alliance for panchayat raj polls in July last. Resenting the big brother attitude of the Congress, the CPI-M courted the Telugu Desam Party.  Both parties made significant gains in the Telangana region.

Naidu followed up his recent dinner meetings with CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat and CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan in Hyderabad by undertaking a two-day trip to Delhi recently. He met these leaders again and made appropriate noises in an attempt to regain their trust.

Naidu advocates an in-depth review of economic reforms and feels that only five per cent of the country’s population is deriving 90 per cent of the benefits from economic liberalization and reforms.  He called for a nationwide debate on reforms over the last 16 years and the course they should take to benefit the common man.

CLEAN ENERGY FUND IN MAHARASHTRA

NEW DELHI, September 26 (INFA): A special corpus of Rs.2,800 crore has been approved by the Maharashtra Government for funding non-conventional energy projects in the State.

Coming in the wake of the recently-announced policy on non-conventional energy, the corpus aims at achieving a capacity addition of 1000 MW from non-conventional energy sources in the next two years. These include geothermal, biomass, small hydro, etc., but exclude wind energy projects. 

Originally, the fund was envisaged to support infrastructure development for wind power projects in interior areas. Considering the fact that wind is the largest source of renewable power in Maharashtra, its exclusion is not a far-sighted step. All other renewable sources together cannot match wind power’s potential to provide energy security of the State.

The State Government will contribute Rs.218 crore in the next three years out of the Green Cess fund.  It may be remembered that the Green cess (on conventional power consumed in the industrial and commercial sectors at the rate of 4 paisa per kwh) was imposed, based on the proposal made by WISE’S Director General, G M Pillai.  About Rs.200 crore will come from the private sector financial institution, which is also the investment manager. The remaining Rs.2400 crore would be raised from the market.---INFA