After being left without anyone to serve the regulator for nearly 10 months following the completion of the term of two Members and Chairman, a full-fledged Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission (TSERC) has been put in place with the State Government notifying the appointments for the three posts on Thursday, just in time for filing annual revenue returns by the two discoms for 2019-20. The State Government has issued orders notifying the appointment of Tanneeru Sriranga Rao as chairman, M.D. Manohar Raju as member (technical) and Bandaru Krishnaiah as member (finance). The names were finalised based on the minutes of the selection committee meeting held on October 22. Mr. Sriranga Rao is a practising advocate who also participated actively in the movement for statehood. He is an alumni of OU and a leader of the Advocates' Joint Action Committee during the statehood movement. Mr. Manohar Raju is retired engineer of power utilities and a former members of the Andhra Pradesh ERC during combined AP.
The new team will have a term of five years from the day they assume the office or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
The term of office of the first Chairman of TSERC Ismail Ali Khan was completed in January this year, that of a member in April 2018 and of another member in August 2016.
The State Government has constituted a committee for selection of the new Chairman and two Members in December last year with Justice V. Bhaskara Rao, a retired High Court judge as its chairman and Chief Secretary and Chairman of the Central Electricity Authority or his nominee as members. It was mandated to submit the selection list within two weeks to the State Government.
However, due to delays on various counts the selection of the new team for TSERC took a long time after 41 persons applied for the three posts. The Southern and Northern Power Distribution Companies of Telangana did not file the annual revenue returns that includes the supply tariff in time, before November-December last year on account of “getting included the estimated consumption of lift irrigation projects, particularly Kaleshwaram”.
When contacted, a senior official stated that the two discoms were preparing to file their ARRs for 2019-20 by November 30. The official said: “Delays in filing ARRs are common for new States as it would take time for them (discoms) to get clarity in accounts”.
