Kerala - Kottayam   

Desist from unbundling of KSEB: workers’ union

KOTTAYAM: The Kerala Electricity Workers Federation (KEWF), affiliated to AITUC, has called upon the State government to discontinue the move in the direction of unbundling the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), in the light of the favourable ruling in this regard by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity . The ruling, dated 15 July 2009, was in the Appeal No.119 of 2008 and IA No.151 of 2008, in the matter of Chhattisgarh State Power Transmission Co Ltd versus Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission and Jindal Power and Steel Ltd.

Referring to the tribunal’s ruling, A.N. Rajan, president, KEWF, told reporters that the provisions of the relevant Act does not make it mandatory for the government to bring in a transfer scheme. The State governments have the option of continuing with the State Electricity Boards (SEBs), which under the new scheme of things would be distribution licensee and State Transmission Utility, he said, referring to the ruling of the tribunal.

According to Mr. Rajan, the ruling makes it clear that if a Board was competent and efficient, it was not required to be unbundled. The ruling also says that the sole aim of providing the scheme of unbundling the state electricity boards was to replace inefficiency with efficiency.

Mr. Rajan said as per the ruling, the State governments had the option of continuing with or unbundling the board and in case the State government intends to continue with the State Electricity Board, it would function like licensee under the Act.

According to him, the experience of power sector in States where the respective State Electricity Boards were unbundled, was not impressive. In Orissa, the State government have been asked by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to take over the responsibility from the private distributing company. In Delhi, the State government had to step in with subsidies to the private distributor when popular agitations were launched against steep hike in tariff. In Maharashtra, the government had to intervene to freeze the tariff hike imposed by the private player, he pointed out.

The KEWF leaders called upon the State government to make use of the conducive atmosphere and desist from further moves in the unbundling of the KSEB.

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