He said chief ministers and power ministers of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and senior officials of the Chandigarh union teritory would be invited to attend the meeting in a bid to clinch these issues.

Kumarmangalam was addressing a news conference after reviewing the power scenario at high-level meetings with the Haryana government and the Chandigarh union territory administration here.

He said it had been decided that both Haryana and the Chandigarh administration would get power share in Chamera-two, Parvati and Kol hydro-electric projects under the Gadgil formula. He said for the power reform process, Haryana would be given one per cent concession in interest on loanstaken from the Power Finance Corporation and the Rural Electrification Corporation.

Kumarmangalam said that the centre had offered 500 mw additional power to Haryana from eastern sector to be brought via the Rourkela-Raipur link. This would take three years and the centre would lay power lines up to Ballabgarh in Haryana, he added. He said Haryana would have seven per cent additional power from UN-allocated central pool of power from central generation projects.

He said the centre had also agreed to the sugestion of the Haryana government for changing liquid fuel policy for setting up liquid fuel-based plants in the state. He said that the Haryana government had sugested to change naphtha liquid fuel to some other fuel for this purpose. He assured full support to the Haryana government for setting up the Yamunanagar super thermal power plant. He said that the Haryana State Electricity Board and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) were free to renew the old agreement for this plant.

The powerminister also assured NTPCc consultancy services to the Chandigarh union territory administration for setting up a liquid fuel power generation plant of 30 mw to 50 mw capacity to meet power needs of the city.

Kumarmangalam also agreed with the proposal of the Chandigarh administration to take a decision on charging the union territory a common pool rate for power instead of global rate for ten lakh power units supplied by the BBMB. Responding to a question about supply of free power to farmers in Punjab, he said that it was for a state to decide which section of the community required to be given additional support.

However, he said that after subsidisation, loss on this count should be borne by the concerned state government and the state electricity board not be burdened for it.

Referring to national power policy, he said that it was based on three cardinal rules to ensure that there was sufficient power, was supplied at competitive rates.