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Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
The Congress party will provide free electricity to the farmers in Andhra Pradesh if it regains power in the state, All-India Congress Committee general secretary Vayalar Ravi said in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Addressing a gathering of farmers at Kamareddy town in Nizamabad district, Vayalar Ravi said that the Congress would adhere to its promise made in 1999 for the upcoming 2004 elections.
Earlier, speaking to reporters in Hyderabad on a three-day visit to the state, Ravi said that the party's election manifesto committee would look into the promise of free power supply to farmers.
The committee would go into all aspects of the issue, including the state's financial position and the availability of power before incorporating the promise.
He claimed that what happened in Punjab would not be repeated in other states. The Congress government in Punjab, he pointed out, withdrew free power for the farm sector due to certain compulsions. "The situation varies from state to state. One has to take into account all issues like availability of power and economic conditions," he said, but admitted that most states, including Andhra Pradesh, are in financial crisis.
Though the Congress had promised free power to farmers in the 1999 assembly election campaign it could only win 90 seats in the 294-member state assembly losing out to the Telugu Desam Party.
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