Relief For T Discoms As Centre To Give ₹10k Cr | Hyderabad News

HYDERABAD: In what could come as a huge relief to cash-strapped Telangana amidst its ongoing battle with the Union finance ministry over open market borrowings, the Centre has agreed to release 10,200 crore pending arrears to the state power distribution companies under its Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
The Centre has also agreed to procure custom milled rice (CMR) from Telangana, a long-pending demand from rice millers of the state.
Soon after chief secretary Somesh Kumar and special chief secretary (energy) CS Sunil Sharma met Union energy department officials in Delhi, the Centre gave its nod to release the funds, sources said. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is camping in Delhi since Monday, also held discussions with senior officials and TRS MPs on how to get pending funds from the Rural Electricity Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC).
Sources said the funding to the struggling discoms couldn’t have come at a better time. The government of India had launched UDAY in 2015 to offer financial turnaround and revival package to the power distribution companies and to bail them out of the financial mess.
KCR held meetings with senior officials separately on various issues concerning the state, especially market borrowings, pending arrears owed by the Centre, paddy procurement and clearances for various irrigation projects for which Telangana has already submitted detailed project reports (DPRs) to the Union jal shakti ministry.
Somesh Kumar along with civil supplies commissioner V Anil Kumar later met Union secretary of PDS department Sudhanshu Pandey and urged him to extend the deadline for procurement of rice from Telangana. The state officials met Pandey after the Food Corporation of India had stopped procurement of CMR from the state. Sources said the Centre has agreed to extend the time and begin procurement of CMR.
Senior irrigation officials said the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project alone requires 15,000 crore from the REC and PFC. State officials spoke to jal shakti ministry officials and the Central Water Commission (CWC) on pending approvals for irrigation projects and also complained against unauthorised projects of Andhra Pradesh.
While incessant rains continue to lash Telangana, the state government is expecting to get only ₹15 crore to ₹20 crore from the Centre as against its request for ₹1,400 crore relief.