Power to consensus -- Naidu teams up with Digvijay to push reforms through

Power to consensus -- Naidu teams up with Digvijay to push reforms through
B.S. Nagaraj

New Delhi, March 3: The Congress may be his party's sworn enemy in Andhra Pradesh, but that didn't stop Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu from making common cause with Congress chief ministers on power sector reforms. If one factor helped pushed through reforms at today's meeting, it was the consensus among States ruled by different parties.

When Congress chief ministers converged at Maharashtra Sadan this morning to decide on a common stand on power sector reforms, they got support from an unexpected source. Naidu called up his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Digvijay Singh from Hyderabad and agreed on a common line to be adopted for the conference. Among other things, they agreed that the States should push for a waiver of State electricity boards' dues to Central power installations like National Thermal Power Corporation.

In fact, Naidu also told the Andhra Assembly -- where Congressmen are giving him a rough time -- that he was in touch with Congress chief ministers on power sector reforms. Opposition parties including the Congress had staged violent protests against the rationalisation of the power tariff structure in AP last year.

These moves reflect an effort by the States to sink their political differences and reach a consensus on this crucial issue. Singh raised this issue when he said if he tried to undertake reforms in his State, the BJP would criticise it. Similarly, he said, Naidu was facing opposition from the Congress to reform.

Both Vajpayee and Power Minister Suresh Prabhu heaped praise on Singh, saying he alone had made the consensus possible.

The sea change was evident when the first resolution was being tabled. ``It was agreed that there is an urgent need to depoliticise the power sector reforms and speed up their implementation,'' it said, calling for the involvement of leaders of opposition in State Assemblies in future meetings.

Another Congress CM, S.M. Krishna of Karnataka, even welcomed some of the proposals in the Union Budget. He particularly appreciated the decision to allow States to procure foodgrains instead of the Food Corporation of India. ``Giving the States the leverage to procure and distribute foodgrains is a welcome move. How long can we depend on the Centre?'' he asked today.