Leaders of the Telangana movement would be responsible for any crop damage due to electricity shortage, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy warned on Monday, citing the ongoing general strike for a separate Telangana state.
The chief minister singled out Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) convenor M. Kodandaram for his attack.
"If crops are damaged, Kodandaram and KCR will be responsible," he said, urging the people of Telangana to strongly oppose them.
Addressing Congress party workers from Adilabad district of Telangana at his camp office here, Kiran Kumar Reddy asked the Telangana leaders not to invite the curse of farmers.
Stating that it was for the central government to take a decision on the issue of Telangana, the chief minister said the agitation should be suspended for two months in view of the crop harvesting season.
The indefinite strike in coal mines of state-owned Singareni Collieries as part of the general strike in Telangana has affected coal production and hit electricity generation at thermal power stations.
Authorities have imposed power cuts on domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors. A one-hour blackout has been imposed on farmers, who earlier got seven hours of free electricity every day.
The chief minister said the power cut was imposed not just in Telangana but across the state. However, Telangana was badly hit as farmers in the region depend on borewells for irrigation of fields.
Kiran Kumar Reddy said electricity shortage poses a threat to crops in over 70 lakh acres of farmland - of this, 60 per cent is in Telangana.
He pointed out that the gap between demand and supply of electricity had increased to 45 million units per day.
"Till two days back, we were buying 25 million units from outside the state but now we are getting only 17 million units. Power is not available even if we pay Rs.6 for every unit," he said.
The chief minister said electricity generation was affected as only 50,000 metric tonnes of coal, against 150,000 per day normally, was being produced by Singareni Collieries.