Cong. seeks grounding of NTPC-BHEL plant – The Congress activists on Thursday staged an indication ahead of the tahsildar’s office at Venkatagiri, demanding the first grounding of the ₹8,000-crore NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Limited (NBPPL) plant proposed for turbines manufacturing for power plants at Mannavaram in Chittoor district to manufacture and generate jobs for local youth.

The activists led by Congress leaders from the Assembly segments of Venkatagiri, Sarvepalli, Gudur, Sullurpeta, and Srikalahasti lamented that the inspiration stone for the proposed plant was laid by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010, but there has been no progress within the last 10 years to start out commercial production in 2015, is yet to ascertain the sunshine of the day. Chief Minister should bring pressure on the Central government to hurry up the implementation of the project,” they said.

Congress leaders P.Srinivasulu Reddy, P. Chandrasekar, Battaiah Naidu, N. Rajasekar, C. Eswaraiah, and P. Venkateswarlu took part in the protest.

‘State govt. must make its stand clear’

Special Correspondent from Tirupati adds: Meanwhile, the Congress activists staged an identical demonstration in Srikalahasti town.

Leading the demonstration, APCC member Batheiah Naidu demanded that the government must clear the air on the difficulty and spell out its stand on the status of the proposed NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Limited (NBPPL) plant.

The party leaders also recalled that it had been promised during the inspiration stone laying ceremony that the project would create job opportunities to each household within the Srikalahasti and Venkatagiri Assembly constituencies.

On the backburner

The Power Projects Limited (NBPPL) by the NTPC-BHEL plant had been pushed to the backburner by the next Central and State governments for the explanations known to them. it’s time the YSRCP government spelt out its stand on the fate of the plant,” said Mr. Batheiah Naidu, adding that the hopes of the local residents to urge jobs at the proposed plant are dashed.

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