‘Amma’ magic or myth?

In the ‘Deccan Chronicle’ daily’s supplement ‘Chennai Chronicle’ on Oct. 16, there is a report, saying “the Chief minister and ADMK chief, J.Jayalalitha, has once again become a symbol of inspiration and courage for her partymen. Discouraged by the poor turn out for the Tiruchi West bypoll and pessimistic forecasts of poll pundits, the morale of the party local body candidates hit a low. But, it was only till Amma hit the campaign trail. A couple of days after her whirlwind tour, ADMK men are once again busy discussing their victory margins. That is Amma magic for you.” Admittedly, it might be her magic for ADMK cadre, but she has once again turned out to be a myth for the people of Tamil Nadu, who were misled by false propaganda and promises to repose faith in her, five months back.

On the previous day (Oct.15), ‘The Hindu’ carried a report under the headline, ‘Jayalalitha promises to end power cuts in one year’, report stated, “Jayalalitha on Friday said that the state would become free from power shortage in one year… within few months of assuming office, the ADMK government had reduced the duration of power cuts gradually. Through sustained efforts to augment power generation, TN will be turned into a state sans power cuts.”

Almost all English and Tamil dailies had given wide coverage to her campaign. ‘The New Indian Express’ continuing with its role of ‘official English mouthpiece of ADMK’ and Tamil daily ‘Daily Thanthi’ stooping to the level of publishing her ‘speech’ (read out uninspiringly) on the first page under the banner heading ‘vote for ADMK’! While factual and undistorted reporting of the leaders should be welcomed, these dailies do not adopt the same yardstick for reporting the speeches and statements of Kalaignar. If only, they had adopted the same method of reporting, they would have reminded their readers of what Jayalalitha promised people during her election campaign in March- April and what were all her comments during DMK rule on power shortage!

During her Assembly election campaign, she promised to address power cut in the state within three months of assuming office. By their day-to-day experience, people for themselves know whether ‘the duration of powercut had been reduced gradually by the ADMK government’ as Jayalalitha claims and dailies report, or duration of powercut increased day after day. Jayalalitha knows that she cannot sell the lie. That was why like other leaders of smaller parties and unlike a Chief Minister, her late decision to undertake a whirlwind tour of the state which speaks for her panic reaction.

Secondly, what are the ‘sustained efforts’ that she proposes to take to augment power generation to turn TN into a state sans powercuts? Nothing so far! But the truth is that it will happen and the state will turn power surplus, thanks to the power projects, conceived, funded and started execution by the previous DMK rule.

A report in the Financial Express on March 2, 2009 under the headline ‘New projects to make Tamil Nadu power surplus by 2012’ stated:

“The power-starved state of Tamil Nadu, which had not commissioned any major power project after 1996, has lined up a slew of power projects for over 14,000 MW generation capacity in public and private sectors. These projects are expected to make the state power sufficient by 2011 and power surplus after 2012. Tamil Nadu presently has an installed capacity of over 10,000 MW and faces 1,500 MW power deficit affecting industrial and domestic consumers.

The new power projects for over 11,500 MW in public sector and 2,500 MW in private sector are at different stages of implementation. The first unit of the 2,000-MW Kudankulam atomic power project is also close to the stage of being commissioned. There will also be over 4,000-MW installed capacity in renewable sector with over 3,000 MW from wind turbines alone, followed by biomass, co-generation and others.

Of the thermal projects, about 6,000 MW would be commissioned in 2010-11 by the public sector power companies as joint ventures with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), State Electricity Minister Thiru Arcot N Veerasamy said in the sate assembly. It includes 1,200-MW expansion of North Chennai and 600-MW expansion of Mettur thermal stations, TNEB-National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) joint venture 1500-MW Vallur thermal project, TNEB-Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) joint venture 1600-MW Udangudi super critical thermal power project and TNEB- Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) 1000-MW joint venture at Tuticorin. He said the first 1,000 MW unit of the Kudankulam atomic power project was scheduled to go on stream in December 2009.

The work on 1,000-MW Vallur thermal power project attracting nearly Rs 5423 crore is at the stage of progress. Its capacity can be expanded by another 500 MW. NTPC and TNEB have floated a 50:50 joint venture company - NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Ltd for the coal-based thermal power project. It is the first NTPC project in Tamil Nadu though it supplies 1,492 MW to the state from Ramagundam in Andhra Pradesh and Kayamkulam in Kerala. The unit-1 at Vallur would be ready by November 2010 and the later by March 2011.

[Kalaignar had explained the delay in his statement on June 17: “The works for units 1 and 2 of Vallur Thermal Power Station at an estimated cost of Rs.8,000 were started on 13.8.2007 during DMK rule and works for the third station on 28.7.2009. The boiler for unit one was installed and installation of turbine was going on. Other than key electricity machinery the works for installing other machineries was carried out for the other two units. The tender for buying key mechanical devices for unit 3 had been given to BHEL and works were going on. Units 1,2 and 3 would be linked to the grid in August 2011, October 2011 and September 2012 respectively and planned to bring into operation in October 2011, December 2011 and November 2012.”]

 The Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has sanctioned Rs 3796 crore, which is the debt component of the project. Foundation stone was laid for the super critical 1,600 MW (800x2) Udangudi thermal power project near Tiruchendur, in Tuticorin district, recently. Estimated to cost Rs 8700 crore, it is a joint venture between BHEL and TNEB. TNEB is teaming up with NLC to set up a coal-based 1,000 MW power project at Tuticorin. The foundation stone for this was laid on Febraury 28 by the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The promoters have formed a new company, NLC-Tamil Nadu Power Ltd, to develop the 500x2 thermal power project estimated to cost Rs.4,900 crore. NLC and TNEB will have 89% and 11% equity respectively. REC has sanctioned Rs.3437 crore, the entire debt component of the NLC-Tamil Nadu Power Ltd.

Coastal Energen , a Coal and Oil group company, is setting up a 1,200-MW merchant power project at Tuticorin. It is to be commissioned in 2012 and major share of the power would be available to the consumers in Tamil Nadu. Ahmed Buhari CEO said the company has signed a power purchase agreement with Tata Power. It will sell the power to the bulk consumers in Tamil Nadu itself.

Cuddalore Powergen Corporation, promoted by the BGR Energy group, is setting up a 1320 MW (660x2) thermal power project at Cuddalore with a power purchase agreement with TNEB. This MoU-route power project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2013. There is a proposal to set up 4,000-MW mega power project at Cheyyur, Kancheepuram district. The Power Finance Corporation is taking the lead in this. NLC proposes to set up a 1600 MW project at Jayamkondam, Perambalur district, at an investment of Rs.10,000 crore. These two projects will be commissioned after 2012.”

This is the reality of the power position in Tamil Nadu: the efforts taken by the previous DMK government with all sincere by not only to overcome power shortage but to turn Tamil Nadu into a power surplus state, start bearing fruits now. While in opposition Jayalalitha shed crocodile tears for the difficulties faced by people of the state due to her failure to execute any power project during her earlier regime. And now she is trying to play hoax on the people by claiming the outcome of DMK government’s efforts as her achievements. It is regrettable that the media, which is well aware of the truth even by their own past reports, do not come forward to clarify it to the people and opt play a second fiddle to the ADMK’s disinformation campaign.

One can deceive some people for sometime and not all the people all the time!