K-power share: Early, positive response sought

CHENNAI: Pointing out that even after the passage of three weeks, the Centre was yet to respond to her request for the allocation of all 2,000 MW of power that will be generated from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) to power-starved Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday urged PM Manmohan Singh to give her “an early positive response in this regard”.The CM had, on March 31, written a letter to Singh explaining the severe power crisis prevailing in the state in a bid to urge the Centre to allot all the power to be generated from KKNPP to Tamil Nadu. However, there has been no response from the PM in this regard so far. “Now I understand that nuclear fuel loading is going to take place in the next few days in the first unit of the plant of 1,000 MW capacity. It is expected that criticality will be reached in the following 20 days or so, leading to power generation from the first unit of the plant”, the Chief Minister said. She also expressed confidence that the PM would do the needful by accepting the absolutely justified demand of Tamil Nadu.In her letter to the PM dated March 31, the CM had recalled her earlier request for allocation of 1,000 MW from the Central pool to cope with the power crisis and pointed out that the Centre had given a mere 100 MW. Of the 2,000 MW to be generated from the KKNPP, the Centre had earlier agreed to allocate only 925 MW to Tamil Nadu.