Chennai, March 31 (IANS): Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday charged the the Tamil Nadu government with not being in favour of people benefitting from power but wanting the power thieves to benefit.

Speaking to reporters here after a party meeting, Javadekar also said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa is not accessible.

He was echoing the views of union Power Minister Piyush Goyal who expressed similar views at a conference in New Delhi recently.

Reacting to Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Natham R. Viswanathan's statement that the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme would benefit only private power producers and banks, Javadekar said the scheme would actually cut power theft.

According to him, 18 states including several non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states have signed up for the UDAY scheme as they realised that it would benefit the honest consumers.

Javadekar said around Rs.180,000 crore will be saved through this scheme and it will bring many power distribution companies out of red. He said Tamil Nadu's power distribution company had reported a loss of around Rs.12,000 crore last fiscal.

He also faulted the Tamil Nadu government for not joining the UJALA scheme to provide LED bulbs at lower cost which has benefitted around nine crore people in the country.