Govt not to give in to striking UPSEB staffers' pressure

Govt not to give in to striking UPSEB staffers' pressure
HARISH GUPTA

NEW DELHI, JAN 22: Armed with a mandate from the Prime Minister's Office, Union Power Minister P R Kumaramanglam clarified on Saturday that there was no question of the Centre buckling under the pressure of the striking Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board (UPSEB) employees as generation and availability of power has improved considerably in the State.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has also been told to deal with the strikers firmly as this is going to be a "test case" for the rest of the country. With the World Bank and other international funding agencies watching the outcome of the UPSEB strike closely, the Centre feels that softing on this count could jeopardise privatisation of the power sector and bring in investments. The softing by the Government on this count would also eliminate the possibility of eliminating the "power mafia". The "mafia" has caused transmission and distribution (TDS) losses to the tune of 53 per cent in some of the states.

In fact, a latest study conducted by the power ministry revealed that TDS losses before privatisation of distribution of power in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Haryana were 32, 23 and 33 per cent respectively. But after the privatisation, the losses turned out to be as high as 47 per cent.

This fact surfaced when it was discovered that SEBs were issuing false electricity bills to prove their outstanding dues. It was discovered by the private distributors that these dues did not exist at all.

It has also been revealed that TDS losses alone account for more than Rs 15,000 crore in the country. Even the subsidy to farmers did not account for this huge amount as power is not even reaching to rural areas.

In respect of UP, it was found that the installed capacity of power plants under the state electricity board was 6000 mw. However, the generation before the strike was just 1600 mg ie around 20 per cent only.

When asked Kumaramanglam said that generation of power per day in UP was 1900 mw now.

Kumaramanglam who had a series of meetings in the PMO and his ministry officials throughout the day, disclosed that engineers from Japan had been summoned to rectify the damage caused to turbines in some of the plants by the striking employees and stern action would be taken by the Government in this regard.

The Centre has also set aside an amount of Rs 50 crore for the repair of these turbines and amount would be charged from the striking employees.