'Where Are The Investors?'

l More than Rs 16,000 crore is due from the State Electricity Boards; almost all of them are in the red. The situation is such that nobody is prepared to take hard decisions and become unpopular. If the chief minister of a state belonging to a political party takes a hard decision, the other political party makes it an issue for an agitation. How long can we play this type of mean politics? Every political party wants to exploit the situation for short-term gains in public life. If the state or the Centre takes some decisions there are forces which try to attribute motives alleging that there is a nexus between the investors and the Government. This has resulted in delays in the execution of projects.

l If any project is cleared then comes the environment or pollution problem. If we clear a project the next day there will be a public interest litigation. I do not know whether it is a public interest litigation or a political interest litigation. And that will run on for two, three, six months or a year. The cost of the project will unnecessarily grow enormously. If it is Rs 2,000 crore, it goes up to Rs 4,000 crore.

If  I say today that you must improve your resources not only for generation of power but also for distribution then I must issue some directions to the states that you take hard decisions to collect revenues and also higher tariff. You can easily pass on the buck to me saying what can you do when the Central Government raised the tariff.