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No review of Enron power project: Patil

Maharashtra Energy Minister Padamsinh Patil, today ruled out review of Enron power project, during question hour in state legislative council.

Despite repeated questioning from opposition benches Patil stuck to his statement, even though Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had on the eve of the assembly session talked of reviewing the project at Dabhol.

Denying the review of the project, Patil added that the state government will have to "pay a price for the review".

Replying to a question from Prakash Jawdekar (BJP) and others, Patil informed the house that the state was paying 0.71 paise per unit more to Enron for not buying electricity as per agreement with them.

Maharashtra State Electricity Board had purchased power from Enron between May 1999 and Sept 2000 at the rate of Rs 6.91 per unit, he told the Upper House.

As per the recommendations of the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC), MSEB was buying electricity during peak hour to the tune of 728 MW, Patil said.

Launching an attack on the Democratic Front government on load shedding, the leader of opposition Nitin Gadkari questioned its propriety, which he said had "led to large scale losses to farmers".

Patil said the government was bound by the restrictions of ERC on power purchase and MSEB could not take a unilateral decision. Jawdekar and Anna Dange (BJP) both criticised the government on the load shedding issue.

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