News Detail

• The industries department has finally reached out to the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Small Industries Association and the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh, whose members have been staging a hunger strike since last week, and has assured uninterrupted power supply to the small-scale sector within two days.On Monday, a representative from the Industries Commissioner’s office met the members of FAPSIA to assure them of uninterrupted power supply within two days. A decision has been taken at the highest level to use high cost RLNG for generating additional power for supplying to small industries only. However, the power utilities are yet to come up with an estimation of power demand for small-scale industries sector.

• “A decision has been taken to generate additional power through RLNG although a formal announcement is yet to be made. However, the assurance is only for the small industries which are on the brink of closure now,” informed a source. The decision has come a week after the major industries minister Geeta Reddy met the industry association and assured them of a short-term solution to the problem. Industry representatives had made it clear that unless the power cuts are lifted from the small and micro industries, they would be forced to lay off workers.Incidentally, generation of additional power by using high cost RLNG was a suggestion thrown up by industry representatives themselves at the meeting. They wanted the additional power generated through RLNG to be supplied to SSI units at normal tariff, and to large units as well as to continuous process industries that can afford this power at higher cost without cross subsidy. The demand of medium and large industries to reduce power cuts by 15 per cent is yet to get a response.

Source