Ever since YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in Andhra Pradesh, the national media has been adopting a negative approach towards the state government.
The national media, which had been habituated to projecting a larger than life size image of former chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, has been viewing Jagan and his decisions with a lot of scepticism and criticism.
Whether it was stalling of projects sanctioned by Naidu or halting of works in Amaravati, review of power purchase agreements, reverse tendering in Polavaram project and others, there have only been negative stories in the national media, which have failed to see the positive side of Jagan’s government.
When World Bank withdrew its loan for Amaravati and recently the contract with Singapore consortium was cancelled, the national media lashed out at Jagan government in their editorials, much to the delight of the TDP and other opposition parties.
On Wednesday, popular national business daily Business Standard has come out with yet another negative report saying leading global financiers have warned the Indian government, through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), that they might drag Andhra Pradesh (AP) to international arbitration for cancelling clean energy projects.
The report said the clean energy projects were scrapped by the state government in July, citing wrongful bidding.
Quoting sources in the government, the report said several countries had reached out the MEA, expressing concern and indicating global legal action if the issue was not addressed soon.
Nearly 7,000 Mw of solar and wind power projects face cancellation in AP, putting more than Rs 40,000-crore investment in danger. The investors are apprehensive that AP will set precedent for other states.
“This report is nothing but part of a malicious campaign launched by the vested interests. So far, not a single PPA with any renewable energy company was scrapped nor was the power purchase from these companies stopped. We are making payments to them as per the directions of the high court,” minister for energy Balineni Srinivas Reddy said.
He made it clear that the government would go ahead with the directions of the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission as per the law.
He pointed out that the government had fallen due on the payments not just the non-conventional power producers, but also other generating companies, mainly because of the lapses of the previous TDP government.