The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a public interest litigation petition seeking a special investigating team probe into the alleged “Rs.one lakh crore scam in TNEB” for the last 14 years, except for a brief interregnum in 2004.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice M.M.Sundresh said the notice would be returnable by four weeks.
In the petition, filed through counsel Manikandan Vathan Chettiar, the petitioner C. Selvaraj, a pensioner, alleged that the scam was done through various methods, which included “ensuring artificial power shortage throughout the State by non-implementation of the Electricity Act 2003, preventing new projects from taking-off, or delaying them indefinitely to maintain the shortage and purchasing power from the private sector at exorbitant prices.”
The petitioner alleged that the stalled projects included the North Chennai, Udangudi and Vallur TPS. Contrary to the Electricity Act, the TNERC suo motu effected a tariff hike of 15 per cent for 2014-15. The dissenting order of a Member spoke volumes about the functioning of the TNEB and the TNERC.
He had said that the Commission met only once in three months when the tariff proposal was processed.
The petitioner alleged that the ‘scam’ was done through various methods
