State govt's power purchase deal with UPCL illegal, expensive'

March 9, 2011

HGD

Udupi, Mar 9: Executive President of Jana Jagruthi Samithi, Nandikooru, Balakrishna Shetty accused the Yediyurappa Government of purchasing power from Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) without fixing the unit price and without an approved Power Purchase Agreement ratified by the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission, as per the applicable laws.

In a press release, Shetty said that without the power purchase agreement between the power project and the government and without such agreement duly approved by CERC and ratified by the KERC the UPCL has no right to produce power and the plant should immediately shut down on this ground as well.

He said that information received by the Samithi from both the regulatory authorities - Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, New Delhi (CERC) and Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission, Bangalore (KERC) - reveal that neither the tariff has been approved by the CERC nor the KERC ratified the Power Purchase Agreement. The purchase of power obviously is made illegally at a high price by the government utility, the Power Corporation of Karnataka Limited and KPTCL.

The project is approved as the mega-power project and qualifies for various benefits like custom duty exemption and certain tax holidays etc. As the project is to supply power to more than one State the tariff is required to be decided by the CERC. It may be recalled that CERC had granted in-principle approval of the capital cost at Rs 4299.12 crores in October 2006 based on the equipment supply by BHEL. The UPCL terminated the agreement with BHEL and purchased far cheaper and perhaps reconditioned equipments without any guaranteed life span from Dong Fang of China.

The cost of the project based on other projects that used Chinese equipments should not be over 3720 crores for the increased capacity of 1200mw. The former Managing Director of KPTCL Bharat Lal Meena has stated that the company should reduce the project cost by at least 600 crores so that cheaper power is made available to the consumers. The Company on the contrary has been claiming increase of 600 crores in the project cost in the name of increase in the capacity.

In the background of the district in-charge Minister Dr VS Acharya's press statement that the State has released Rs 583 crores to the company, the basis of such release of funds becomes highly questionable. While the State is virtually being blackmailed in the name of power shortage large scale embezzlement of State funds on account of this project cannot be ruled out, he alleged.

Samithi demanded the authorities including the Governor and the Judiciary to take the matter suo-motto to get to the bottom of the issue and punish the culprits.


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News Network
July 26,2020

Bellary,  Jul 26: A 100-year-old woman resident of Huvina Hadagali town in Bellary district, Karnataka, recovered from COVID-19 after testing positive for the virus earlier this month.

"Doctors treated me well. Along with regular food, I was eating an apple a day. The doctors are giving me tablets and injection, and I am healthy now. COVID-19 is like a common cold," said Hallamma while speaking to news agency.

The woman's son, daughter-in-law, and grandson had also tested positive for the virus, and the family was treated at their home.

According to health department officials, her son works at a bank and had tested positive on July 3, after which Hallamma tested positive on July 16; the 100-year-old reported negative for the virus on July 22.

Meanwhile, the covid-19 death toll in the country rose to 32,063 with 705 fatalities being recorded in a day on Sunday. The number of tests for detection of covid-19 has crossed the 16-million mark in the country.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Mysuru, May 1: Four people who brought a dead man’s body from Mumbai for cremation in his native place in Mandya district in Karnataka have tested positive for Covid-19 virus, and now the administration is trying to find out if the man himself had been an undetected positive.

According to Mandya district deputy commissioner M V Venkatesh, the deceased man was a 53-year-old native of B Kodagalli of Pandavapura taluk, Melkote hobli in Mandya district. He died after suffering a heart attack at the U N Desai government hospital in Mumbai on April 23.

The cremation took place outside the man's native village after the local administration refused to allow it inside the village.

Wanting the final rites performed in his native place, the man’s family got the body embalmed and procured all the medical records and certificates from the hospital and brought it in an ambulance belonging to the Desai government hospital.

When they reached Pandavapura taluk in Karnataka on the evening of April 24, the local administration did not allow the body to enter the village but allowed the relatives to cremate it outside the village.

And since the family had come from Mumbai, the district administration quarantined all seven of the man’s relatives, and their samples were sent for testing on 28 April.

The results showed that the deceased man’s 25-year-old son, daughter-in-law, daughter, and two-year-old grandchild are positive for Covid 19. All of them have been admitted at the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences although they have no symptoms.

Deputy commissioner Venkatesh said that in the Desai hospital records in Mumbai there was no mention whether or not the man had been tested for Covid-19. “We are writing to Desai hospital to clarify if the deceased person was tested for Covid 19. It is also possible that the family got infected by the man’s son who works in the loan department of ICICI Bank in Mumbai and visits several offices in different areas of Mumbai,” he said.

The man’s ancestral B Kodagalli village now has been sealed off. Though tests done on other members of the family have come back negative, the Mandya administartions plans to repeat their tests.

So far 26 people have tested positive for Covid 19 in Mandya district.

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News Network
April 25,2020

Kalaburagi, Apr 25: In order to make people aware about the precautionary steps required to be taken in order to contain the spread of coronavirus, Muslim clerics here are making announcements from mosques after 'Azaan' urging people to follow the government guidelines to keep infection at bay.

Speaking to news agency, Ateeq Ur Rahman Ashrafi, All India Imams Council Karnataka's state president, said, "Under our council, there are around 80 mosques and after Azaan we are spreading awareness about COVID-19. I also appeal to other mosques to make such announcements and follow government guidelines."

This year, due to the spread of the virus, Muslim clerics have requested people to offer prayers inside their homes and avoid any kind of social gathering.

The country is under lockdown till May 3. All religious places including mosques have been closed to stop the transmission of the highly contagious virus.

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