Three months after the CERC was constituted, its members are yet to find an office and do not even have the power to buy a pen without the Government's permission.

As a result, the independent regulatory authority for the power sector remains very dependent on the Government which does not seem to be in any hurry to provide it with the basic facilities of office and staff.

Financial and staffing independence is at the core of any independent regulatory body. Without these, the body becomes vulnerable to pressures and influences from the Government. The staffing and funding independence of the CERC will be the model for the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions which are being set up.

If the Central Government doesnot give the CERC due respect and freedom, the states will make the SERCs toothless as well, and the entire purpose of setting it up will be lost. The CERC was set up in July and Prof S L Rao was appointed chairman.

While a budget of about Rs 7 crore a year has been allocated for the CERC, about Rs 3 crore has been released for this year. But the financial powers have not been delegated to the CERC. This means that for every little purchase, the CERC has to seek the approval of the Ministry of Power.

To make matters worse the finance ministry officials are busy finding fault with the staffing pattern submitted by the CERC. In a progressive move, the CERC has decided that all appointments in the regulatory body will be on contract or deputation basis so that it does not have any permanent staff. It was felt that a permanent status would make the staff complacent and hurt the objective of running the CERC in a professional manner.

In its proposal (sent in August) the CERC asked for a staff of 45 to manbasic functions of the commission. But the finance ministry returned the document (after three months) and made some surprising deletions. While the posts of only two peons was suggested, even that was reduced to one. The posts of two bench officers were also struck down. Also slashed from the list was the post of an accountant. The Finance Ministry apparently does not want the CERC to have an accountant.

``As it is, we sent a very small list because we want to run a tight organisation. But we haven't been able to appoint even those,'' says an official of the CERC. Since the CERC is a quasi-judicial organisation, it will operate a court, and will need two bench officers to process the papers. The decision of not allowing bench officers to a quasi-judicial body has been received with much derision.

In another development, the CERC is fending off attempts by the Government to introduce encadrement of officers. This would mean that certain posts would be reserved for Government officers. Since the officerswould be chosen by the Government, the CERC would have little say in the appointment and removal of these officers.

Space is another big problem for the regulatory body. The Government has not allocated any space to it so far. A couple of rooms were made available in Hotel Janpath for a few days which was found to be too small and impractical.

The CERC is currently operating out of the building of the Institute of Cost and Work Accountants of India in Delhi. Even this space was made available because A R Ramanathan, a member of the CERC, is also a member of ICWAI. The space has been made available free of cost. Some space was found in Indira Gandhi Stadium, but was in such a bad shape that it would have required a couple of crores to put it in order.

Until the Government gets cracking, the country's power regulator will continue to live on a favour.