Press Releases Archive

Parties living in glass houses hurling Stones at Lok Satta: Dr. JP

Traditional parties have trained their guns on the Lok Satta Party as they are unable to stomach its growing popularity, said Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan here today.

Welcoming a number of youth including some from the Congress and the TRS from Serilingampalli into the party, Dr. JP congratulated them on choosing the party which is committed to ushering in corruption-free politics.

Dr. JP charged the traditional parties with being mired in corruption. A cursory look at their finances revealed they ran their parties with black money. The Congress which ruled the States and the country for many, many years said it received in all only Rs.8 crore by way of donations during 2007-08. The TDP which ruled Andhra Pradesh for 16 years maintained it received only Rs.61 lakh. “Every one knows it costs Rs.25 crore-Rs.30 crore to organize a meeting of either a Sonia Gandhi or a Rajiv Gandhi or a TDP’s ‘garjana’. They spend unaccounted money and to raise it they perpetuate corruption. In contrast, the Lok Satta received donations by cheque and issued receipts for every rupee it received.”

The Lok Satta President contrasted the methods of working of the Lok Satta with those of the traditional parties by pointing out that while the Lok Satta got a school renovated by collecting donations, leaders of traditional parties occupied the land of another school -- both in Hydernagar in Serilingampalli constituency.

Talking to the media, party spokesmen Katari Srinivasa Rao and V. Laxman Balaji dubbed the charges of some people claiming to be Telangana leaders as lies. They were merely repeating allegations leveled by TDP leaders. They pointed out that it was the Lok Satta alone which gave tickets to downtrodden sections in 100 of the 200 seats. The party which contested 248 Assembly seats allocated 88 seats to backward classes. In addition to reserved seats, the party allocated 12 more general seats to SCs and STs.

Thursday, July 23, 2009 - 18:50

Scrap Hinduja power project, Demands Dr. JP

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today took strong exception to the Andhra Pradesh Government going out of the way to revive the moribund Hindujas’ Visakhapatnam thermal power project, oblivious of the lessons learned from the Enron episode.

In a statement, Dr. JP pointed out that the Hinduja project was one of the fast-track projects sanctioned by the Government 16 years ago either in haste or without proper thought or for extraneous considerations. The fast track projects envisaged guaranteeing a certain rate of return to promoters based on the capital and running expenditure they incurred. Exhuming the project now under the pretext of overcoming power shortage in the State was harmful to the interests of the State and the country.

Dr. JP said, “Power projects in 2009 are sanctioned on the basis of competitive bidding under which only those which supply power at the lowest tariffs are preferred. Instead, the Government of Andhra Pradesh is now trying to revive the Hinduja project offering it a rate of return based on its investment. It was such a thoughtless policy which landed the country in trouble when the Maharashtra Government cleared the Enron power project in the past.”

Dr. JP said that the Andhra Pradesh Government was abusing its powers when it not merely agreed to allot 2000 acres of land and facilitated coal linkage with the Mahanadi coalfields but also asked officials to resolve all Hinduja power project problems on a war-footing.

The Lok Satta President said the PPAs (power purchase agreements) the Government entered into with private power producers in the past had reeked of massive corruption. “Far from undoing the blunder it had committed in the past, the Government is now trying to repeat it.”

Saying that the per mega watt cost of the Hinduja project would be double that of Genco, Dr. JP said the people would have to pay through their nose higher power tariffs. If the Electricity Regulatory Commission of the State rejected the stiff tariff, the Hindujas would sell power outside the State. The Government should, therefore, scrap the Hindika project and instead ask Genco to take it up.

Dr, JP demanded that the Government reveal all details relating to the Hinduja power project and explain how it was going to help the State.

Thursday, July 23, 2009 - 18:04

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