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De allocation could tell on GDP growth, warns Moily
Updated : Sep 18, 2012
Claiming that nothing was amiss in coal blocks allocation, Union Power Minister Veerappa Moily assailed the BJP for stalling Parliament on the issue. Coal blocks were allocated to the private sector after taking into consideration its massive contribution in power generation and after a process of competitive bidding, he said. Any action now could affect the economy. The ratio of power to GDP growth of a country is 1:1.5. If you want 9 per cent GDP growth, you ought to produce 8 per cent of power and if you aspire for 10 per cent GDP growth, your power production should be at 9 per cent. Moily warned that the Opposition move to sabotage the development plan could set the country’s growth back by decades. We spent 60 years to be able to grow at 9 per cent annually. Maybe we would need another 80 years to come back if this kind of sabotage develops, he told in Shillong. Slamming the BJP, he said it will face the music like they did in 1982 by winning only two Parliament seats. If they cannot be responsible as a constructive Opposition, they have no business to be in power again. On the private sector contribution to power production, he said it went up from a mere 20 per cent during the 10th Plan period to a “massive 55 per cent” by the end of the 11th Plan. The 54,000 MW produced during the 11th Plan was comparable to the generation of the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Plans put together.