TSECL reeling under a loan burden of Rs 800 crores, government responsible for state of affairs, Manik Dey

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, September 16, 2023

Former power minister and veteran CPI (M) leader Manik Dey has accused the state government of ruining the Tripura State Electrical Coporation Limited (TSECL) because of its faulty policies designed to benefit private parties from outside the state. He was speaking in a meeting organized in the government-run ‘Muktadhara’ auditorium by CITU against privatization of railway and power sectors.

“During the past five and half years the TSECL has incurred a debt burden of Rs 800 crores even though till February 2018 the TSECL had a fixed deposit of Rs 300 crores;now the corporation is neck-deep in debt” said Manik Dey. He added that the ‘so-called double engine government’ has set a red bulb alight in the power supply corporation over the past filve and half years of its misrule. He alleged that the TSECL is trying to increase power bills every month like ‘pick-pockets’ because the state government is eager to privatise the power sector.

“This is the reason why several divisions have been handed over to private parties from outside the state and they are cutting the pockets of 12 lakh power consumers of the state” said Manik Dey,adding that the quality of service rendered by the TSECL has reached its nadir though this should never have happened in a power-surplus state like Tripura. Manik said that the erstwhile left front had left the state of Tripura power-surplus but going by the daily rate of power cuts and load shedding ‘it seems that Tripura has again become power-deficit’. Yesterday’s meeting in the ‘Muktadhara’ auditorium was also attended by the CITU general secretary and former MP Sankar Prasad Dutta.