Representatives of HPGCL, Power Trading Corporation and Lanco Group appeared before the three-member Commission headed by chairman Bhaskar Chatterjee to present their case for a change in the HERC order issued on November 2. HERC will give its views soon after going through the merits and demerits of the case, according to sources in the Commission.

The Bhupinder Singh Hooda government had come under sharp attack earlier by senior Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Sampat Singh for allegedly trying to put pressure on HERC to review its earlier decision on the PSA. “HERC should never have admitted the HPGCL review petition,’’ said Sampat Singh, adding, “This was an attack on the independence of a statutory body.’’

Sampat Singh had alleged that the Haryana government was blatantly subverting the rule of law to favour Hyderabad-based Lanco Kundapall, owned by a Congress MP’s family, that was promoting Lanco Amarkantak Thermal Power Project, Phase-II at the cost of the people of Haryana. He had asked that the review exercise must be immediately stopped and HERC should be allowed to function independently. He had also accused HPGCL of trying to favour Lanco.

While rejecting the agreement earlier, HERC had ruled that the power purchase agreement did not qualify for exemption from Clause 5.1 of the National Tariff Policy. The policy notified by the Central government had made competitive bidding mandatory for all power purchases. On the other hand, the HPGCL had entered into the agreement with the PTC through negotiations and not competitive bidding. HERC had also not accepted the “pool tariff mechanism”, as it exposed avoidable uncertainties.

HERC’s earlier order on the power purchase agreement had come as a shock to the Hooda government as its Council of Ministers had already given its approval to go ahead with the deal. For power-starved Haryana, power was to become available from Lanco Group’s plant from the year 2009. The agreement had been made for 25 years.