TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday raised objection to the cancellation of the sale, distribution and retail licence of the Kuppam Rural Electric Cooperative Society Ltd. (RESCO) without justifiable reasons.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Secretary, Mr. Naidu urged him to exempt Kuppam RESCO from the retail licence in order to allow the cooperative society to continue its activities as before.
The orders of the AP Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) for cancellation of the licence were unilateral, he argued.
Mr. Naidu contended that the APERC order for the merger of Kuppam RESCO with the AP Southern Power Distribution Company Ltd. (APSPDCL) was against the will of the people.
The order was given just because the Kuppam RESCO did not get the retail licence. It was not right on the part of the government to allow the APSPDCL to take over Kuppam RESCO at this juncture, he said.
Rural electrification
Established in 1981 in the Kuppam Assembly constituency, the Rural Electric Cooperative Society aimed at achieving 100% rural electrification in the backward and distant corners of the Kuppam segment, Mr. Naidu said, adding that the Kuppam society had succeeded in its objective with the support from the RESCO AP.
This particular cooperative society, Mr. Naidu informed the Chief Secretary, had more than 1.22 lakh shareholders with 1.24 lakh connections, including the ones in residential, commercial and industrials sectors.
A majority of the shareholders were small and middle class farmers and families belonging to the SC, ST and BC communities depending mainly on agriculture as their source of livelihood, he said.
Finding fault with the APERC decision, the TDP leader urged the official to prevent merger of Kuppam RESCO with the APSPDCL.
Not being in possession of a licence was a flimsy ground to go ahead with its merger, especially when the government had been giving licence exemption consecutively every year ever since the Kuppam RESCO was established, Mr. Naidu said.
