Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy stated that the Centre has provided ‘Y’ category security with CRPF personnel to Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut following a request by the Himachal Pradesh government after assessing threat perception to her life and harassment by some sections.
Mr. Reddy stated this during a web conference held with media persons on Friday. Father of the actress had approached the HP government by writing a letter seeking security to his daughter by explaining the threat to life being faced by her and harassment meted to her by some sections, particularly in Maharashtra. The actress’ father also met State’s Chief Minister personally with the same request, he said. Mr. Reddy said that the Centre would not intervene in any matter dealt by the State government, including that of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s reported suicide. Inquiry into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was only a result of the Supreme Court directions, he said.
On power bill
Responding to a question on the opposition of some States to the amendments proposed to the Electricity Act by the Centre, Mr. Reddy said the Centre would not do injustice to any State and the objective behind the amendments to the Act is to make the power distribution companies (Discoms) economically viable by streamlining their performance, including steps to get funding for subsidies given by State governments.
Justifying the proposal of metering the power supply to agricultural pumpsets, the Union Minister said there is nothing wrong in knowing consumption by the agriculture sector and the State governments could continue free power by reimbursing the Discoms proportionately.
“As such the Centre has no objections to free power given by States to any sector. They can do it by metering the consumption too. Andhra Pradesh has taken the lead in announcing that it would go for fixing meters to agricultural connections to make appropriate allocation to Discoms,” Mr. Kishan Reddy said.
