The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) would soon table a white paper, said Minister for Energy Resources and Law C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar in Madurai on Sunday.
Interacting with journalists, he blamed the former Electricity Minister Senthilbalaji for having “ruined the TANGEDCO”.
According to Mr. Kumar, there was corruption everywhere. Malpractice, maladministration and mismanagement pulled the department to the bottom.
Be it on floating tenders, or purchase of transformers or sanctioning licences for new applicants seeking to enter renewable sector and among others, corruption and favouritism was there. Mr. Senthilbalaji had neglected rules. In many situations, he had bent the rule to oblige a select group of people, Mr. Kumar alleged.
Tamil Nadu, which was once on the top, stood at the bottom as far as renewable energy sector was concerned, he said and charged it was due to the high corruption by those in power then. Instead of encouraging entrepreneurs to set up units, the DMK government was keen only on making money and keeping a few beneficiaries happy.
Thus, genuine business groups silently relocated to other States, he claimed.
“For each megawatt, Mr. Senthilbalaji had demanded ₹25 lakh as commission from the applicants through his loyalists,” he alleged and added both the High Court and the CBI police were closely monitoring the charges.
Assuring the new government would remain transparent, he said the tender process and other procedures would be carried out as per law. Very soon, the government would tell the people on how much money they would be saving due to a straight forward administration.
Asked about recruitment in the TANGEDCO, he said when there were nearly 70,000 vacancies in the TANGEDCO, why did the government remain silent and why did they not take steps to recruit in the past.
“We are now assessing the staff requirement and soon, the process would start in a free and fair manner for recruitment.”
He said in the last four weeks alone, a number of policy decisions on the TANGEDCO’s procedures have been changed.
“We will tell the public. They need not pay a single rupee as cut or party fund for getting licence or for enhancement of power for their existing units et al. There will be no middlemen. No brokers,” he assured.
Commenting on the frequent power outages in Chennai, Mr. Kumar attributed it to poor infrastructure. What was provided about a decade ago, has continued.
The governments in the past had not established any new sub-station or installed or enhanced the existing transformers.
For a city like Madurai, in the present demand for power, six sub-stations were required to be installed and hence, for the State capital (Chennai), the number of SS should have been expanded rapidly in proportionate to the population and the load demand of electricity, he said.
He said if TANGEDCO was bad, it was worse in solar/wind energy as the entire sector was functioning under a lobby, masterminded by Mr. Senthilbalaji, he said and added that the new government had streamlined them.
He also charged the former Electricity Minister Sivasankaran as being just a ‘rubber stamp’ and the whole TANGEDCO was remotely operated by Mr. Senthilbalaji, his brother Ashok and a few others.
Published – June 14, 2026 10:21 pm IST
