Chandigarh, July 6

As Capt Amarinder Singh met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today, former Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu once again took to Twitter saying the promise of 300 units of free power will have no meaning until the power purchase agreement (PPAs) are annulled.

In a series of tweets, Sidhu said the faulty clauses in the PPAs were keeping Punjab bonded as the agreements bound the state to pay fixed charges for 100 percent production, whereas other states paid no more than 80 per cent. If the fixed charges were not paid, the cost of power would come down by Rs 1.20 per unit. Questioning the PPAs, he said the fixed charges in the agreements were based on four months of peak demand of 13,000 to 14,000 MW, whereas the demand for rest of the year was 5,000 to 6,000 MW.

“Even more alarming! There is no provision for mandatory supply of power from these private power plants... Private plants keep finding loopholes to file litigation that has cost Punjab Rs 25,000 crore already,” he tweeted. — TNS