The government has asked the power and surface transport ministries to submit an action plan within a fortnight on Y2K compliance measures being taken by them. The decision was taken at a meeting on Y2K of the committee of secretaries (CoS) here on Monday. Both the sectors would exceed the September-end deadline for Y2K compliance,Ravinder Gupta, secretary of department of electronics (DoE), told PTI. The Y2K bug will hit the power sector in billing systems of state electricity boards (SEBs) and regional generation and load despatch centres.

IOC refineries get Golden Peacock award

Three refineries of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have bagged the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award '99 instituted by the World Environment Foundation. The national oil company has so far invested Rs 1779 crore for diesel hydro-desulphurisation units at its refineries at Haldia, Mathura, Gujarat and Panipat, apart from catalytic reforming units atthe Digboi, Barauni and Mathura refineries. UP power distribution privatisation gets going Five districts of Uttar Pradesh have been selected in the first phase of the proposed privatisation of the power distribution system in the state.

These districts are: NOIDA, Rampur, Moradabad, Agra and Kanpur. Minister of state for power Laloo Singh said on Tuesday that despite the loss being suffered by the state electricity board, the government had decided to reduce power rates in view of the increased burden on the people.

Mineral development fund in UP

The UP government has set up mineral development fund for financing and accelerating mineral development research work in the state. The fund would be set up by utilising income receipt of minerals, minister of state for industrial development Kunwar Fateh Bahadur Singh said on Tuesday. He said five per cent of the amount received under the head of non-coal royalty would be deposited in this fund every year. A six-member committee headed by theindustrial development commissoner had been constituted for the approval of the proposals received for mineral development.

In the surface transport sector, software in ports handling import and export data could be affected.

As the electricity distribution system in the country,with five regional grids, is not centralised, failure of one grid due to Y2K bug would put pressure on another which may not take the additional load.

The power sector is being given special attention as it is the least progressing sector, a DOE official said, adding that the sector, except National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), is very casual and complacent about Y2K issues.

Some, like surveillance radars in the civil aviation sector, may even take longer to become Y2K compliant.