Political expediency often comes with a price. Looks like Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) may well have to pay the price for going by the political executive's decision some months ago that there should be no tariff hike when elections are round the corner. The Board could start the process, quite a time-consuming one at that, only on the eve of counting of votes, and that might well tell on the kind of revenue it would be able to mop up during the remaining part of the current fiscal.
The procedures connected with the tariff revision starts with the power utility submitting a statement showing its ‘aggregate revenue receipts and expected revenue from charges’ to the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission constituted under the Electricity Act. The Commission is then required to put the statement on the public domain, invite objections from consumers, study the accounts presented by the power utility and issue its tariff order within 120 days of receiving the statement.
When the KSEB started working on this statement in December last, there were suggestions from the political establishment not to hurry—the elections are round the corner; on top of many other worries including the rise in prices of all essential commodities, why add one more?
The delay in starting the procedures connected with the tariff revision will be, however, very costly for the KSEB since it will take time till the middle of September now for the regulator’s tariff order to come—the KSEB will get only half the financial year to recover the increased expenses it will have to incur on power purchase during the year.
In spite of its change in character to a company that has to function along business principles, the KSEB still seems guided by political compulsions in crucial matters.
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Hope and scheme The BJP leadership has made it clear that there will be no representation for Kerala in the Narendra Modi Cabinet in the first flush. But some hopefuls from the State appear to be in a never-say-die mood. They have been trying to float their names as probable inductees into the Modi Cabinet by resorting to some clever strategies.
In many cases, this involves getting a lower-level functionary to drop their name as one of the probables while talking to media persons. One, who could not manage such an exercise, even went ahead to announce publicly his willingness to be in the Ministry.
Initially, there was speculation that the Prime Minister-designate might consider inducting a Minister of State through the Rajya Sabha route as O. Rajagopal had been made a Minister of State in the Vajpayee government. Not many seemed to care for the little fact that this is a difficult process now. One needs a domicile certificate to contest in the Rajya Sabha elections from another State. Moreover, next round of elections to the Rajya Sabha is only in 2016. So, one has to wait at least for a vacancy arising due to death or resignation to be filled through a by-election.
This, however, does not mean that Mr. Modi has no plans for propping up his party in Kerala. Grapevine has it that the mantle for caring for Kerala will fall on Pon Radhakrishnan, who was elected from neighbouring Kanyakumari and who is likely to become a Cabinet Minister.
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Not quite up there Since January this year, the scientific community in the State has been abuzz with rumours about the imminent appointment of Suresh Das, Director, National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) here, as the head of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India’s public sector research organisation with a network of 39 laboratories under it.
Triggered by the selection committee’s choice of Dr. Das for the prestigious post of Director-General, CSIR, the rumours died down after former Union Minister for Science and Technology Jaipal Reddy objected to the choice, only to resurface when the committee came up with the same name a second time.
With the Minister refusing to take the final call on the issue before the elections, hopes of Dr. Das making it to the top rung receded. But a section of scientists here are hopeful that Dr. Das who was instrumental in the development of the Photosciences and Photonics unit at NIIST, will come into the reckoning again with the change of government at the Centre.
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Crumbling cookie Some of the latest developments in the Congress in Kannur district in the wake of the defeat of its candidate and senior party leader K. Sudhakaran in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency are enough to fuel speculation about an impending byelection in the Kannur Assembly constituency.
Mr. Sudhakaran, who has been active in the political landscape of Kannur since 1987 in various capacities including as DCC president and KPCC general secretary and as MLA and MP, is jobless after his defeat in the LS polls. District Congress Committee president and Sudhakaran-loyalist K. Surendran had summoned embattled A.P. Abdullakutty, MLA, and reportedly directed him to be active in organisational activities of the party. The rumour mill here has been in overdrive since then.
True, Mr. Sudhakaran has denied that that there is a move to force Mr. Abdullakutty to resign as MLA to pave the way for his contest and election in the byelection and thus to spring back to active politics. But there are party leaders who confide that there is more to the recent developments in the party than meets the eye. They say that the MLA, who was virtually banished from Mr. Sudhakaran's poll campaign since he faces sexual harassment charges from solar scam accused Saritha S. Nair, is being kept under pressure so that he would break down sooner than later.
The harassment charge still haunts him with Saritha playing hide and seek on the issue.
With the party and his one-time mentor Mr. Sudhakaran breathing down his neck, Mr. Abdullakkutty appears left with few choices.
With inputs from P. Venugopal, Roy Mathew and T. Nandakumar (Thiruvananthapuram) and Mohamed Nazeer (Kannur)
