K-G gas becomes an emotive issue for AP

Hyderabad
Aug 26: The allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin is slowly turning out to be an emotive issue for political parties and the people of the state.
A Congress leader from Nalgonda district, Mr G. Narayan Reddy, had first raised the demand that the state should be given the right to determine the allocation of gas.
He has organised a pada yatra from Kakinada to Zaheerabad, the 520-km course along which pipelines were being laid.
He disagreed with the decision by the Central em-powered group of ministers that the price of gas should be $4.2 per MMBTU (million metric British Thermal Units) and said the state should be given gas at a price that did not exceed production cost.
The Krishna-Godavari Gas Reserves Protection Committee has also dem-anded that the Centre should redefine the gas allocation policy by giving 50 per cent of the gas produced in the basin to Andhra Pradesh.
The former power secretary, Mr E.A.S. Sarma, found fault with the state government for not protecting the interests of Andhra Pradesh in the issue.
“For some reason, the state government chose to remain a passive spectator while both the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the Central government continued to trample on the interests of the people of the state,” he said.
Local television channels have also seized the moment and are organising debates, seminars and talk shows demanding more gas to the state.
Of course, political parties including the Left and the Praja Rajyam are in the forefront demanding more gas for the state at cheaper rates.
The Praja Rajyam chief, Mr K. Chiranjeevi, is planning to conduct a dharna in East Godavari district over the issue and the Left has already started a campaign of public awareness.
“There is absolutely no rationale in the state not being given sufficient gas,” said the CPI state secretary, Mr K. Narayana. “We will fight it out in the coming days.”
The state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party too has launched a state-wide agitation demanding fair share in K-G basin gas.
“Gas-based power plants in the state are unable to produce adequate power because of acute shortage of gas, resulting in losses to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore,” said the BJP state president, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya.
“The gas taken from the state should be given first to it.” Industralists are also expressing scepticism about the state getting its quota of gas in the backdrop of Centre’s proposal to lay a national gas grid.
“We might be starved of the gas found in the Krishna-Godavari basin if this grid takes shape in next two to three years,” said Mr Y. Harish Chandra Prasad, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries.
“As an industrialist, I feel that the state government should buck up and do something about this,” he said.