M A I N   N E W S

Talks begin with powermen

LUCKNOW, Jan 19 (PTI)— Softening its stand, the Uttar Pradesh government today deferred its decision to dismiss the striking powermen as it entered into a dialogue with their leaders at various levels to end the deadlock on the fifth day of the state-wide indefinite strike, but said the notification trifurcating the state Electricity Board will not be rescinded.

Chief Secretary Yogendra Narain said with the deadline for the striking employees to resume duty expiring at 1000 hrs today, over 2,000 powermen including engineers returned to duties and more were expected to follow.

“We are still keeping an open mind on the dismissals of the striking powermen and will review the situation and take appropriate action,” he told newsmen.

Earlier in the day, Power Secretary Atul Chaturvedi had said that those on strike after the deadline stood dismissed and district administrations had been asked to furnish their list for formal issuance of dismissal orders.

Talks at various levels with the leaders of powermen were held today and the government hoped to end the deadlock, Mr Narain said adding that the government would not rescind its notification to trifurcate the heavily loss making UPSEB.

UP Powermen Joint Action Committee spokesman Shailendra Dubey admitted that talks were held at different levels but rejected the government’s claim of any compromise on withdrawal of the notification.

“The talks have failed because the government has shown no intention of rescinding the notification and we would be move an inch forward unless it is done (withdrawn),” Mr Dubey said.

Mr Chaturvedi said power generation in the state had gone up after one unit of Obra thermal plant started functioning and one more unit of Harduganj was lighted up. The situation would further ease after the Harduganj unit started functioning fully, he added.

He said the three units of Anpara plant were generating a total of 1200 MW power. Adding about 300 MW of hydel power and the import of 2800 MW there was no need of any rostering in the state, he claimed.

However, a “UNI” report from Faizabad and Kanpur said there was no improvement in the power scenario in the state as most of the areas continued to reel under darkness.

UNI adds: The four major central trade unions, including the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, have announced their full support to the agitating power employees.

The leaders of BMS, CITU, AITUC, HMS and All India Power Engineers Federation today came to Lucknow to express solidarity.

“The delegation of the major central trade unions would meet the minister in the evening,” a spokesman of the UP Power Engineers Association said.

Two voices of govt
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 19 — The government seemed to be speaking in two voices while handling the volatile situation following strike by powermen of UP. While the Union Power Minister, Mr P.R.Kumaramangalam, at his press briefing here, denied reports that the Army had been deployed in UP to man power utilities, the official hourly news bulletins of All-India Radio continued to maintain that the Army had been called in.

The minister told newspersons here that the Army had not been called to help maintain power supply in the state and the personnel of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the National Hydro Power Corporation were ensuring the supply of “adequate” power.

Denying any power crisis in the state, Mr Kumaramangalam said UP consumed around 4000 MW to 4600 MW of power per day and the bulk of its requirement was being met through the Northern Grid.

The special Secretary in the Power Ministry, Mr Ahmed Jung, said the Northern Grid was functioning efficiently at the required 50 cvles hertz frequency and was getting its quota of around 16300 MW. This had enabled the government to ensure that UP got its full share of power and there has been no power cut in the state for the past two days.

He said some of the units which had been sabotaged had become operational and power plants of NTPC and NHPC were operating at full capacity.

Mr Kumaramangalam said the Centre had assured the state government that in case it went ahead with the restructuring of the electricity boards, the SEBs could get substantial grant for renovation and modernisation and for improvements in the transmission and distribution systems besides providing other subsidies.

The minister said Anpara thermal power station which normally generates 900 MW of power was now able to generate 1150 MW while the two units of Obra thermal power station were generating 250 MW each. Five of the hydropower plants were also functional but were being operated at base load, he said.

Vested interests behind power stir
From T.V.Lakshminarayan
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 19 — The indefinite strike by workers of the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board in protest against the proposed reforms in the power sector in the state has baffled both central and state Governments as officials maintain the fears of the workers are unfounded.

The reforms when undertaken will ensure the supply of quality power to consumers at most reasonable rates and the employees at their end stand to lose nothing as their employment, terms and conditions and salaries will continue to be protected.

The origin of the reforms in the power sector dates back to the early nineties when the Congress Government initiated the liberalisation programme in the country.

Subsequently, in 1996, two conferences of state Chief Ministers were held in October and December, after which a common minimum national action plan for power was adopted and taken up for implementation.

A sub-committee of the National Development Council, headed by Mr Sharad Pawar, including the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, also went into the reforms programme and suggested a number of measures for the power sector.

These included legislations for the setting up of a central electricity regulatory commission and state electricity regulatory commissions in each state which would be independent of the government.

The committee felt that the financial health of the SEBs would be improved through rationalisation of tariff restructuring and reforms to make them economically viable and their projects bankable to generate energy on economic rate, to provide quality services to the consumers and to ensure a fair return to the investors.

It felt this could best be achieved by unbundling single entity (SEBs) and corporatising the same for the above activities. In this contest it was suggested that the states take the initiative to unbundle their respective SEBs into separate companies for generation and transmission and distribution.

A few states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Orissa have already initiated reforms in the power sector in their respective SEBs and UP was infact amongst the late entrants to the programme.

The state after having established an independent state electricity regulatory commission is now in the process of creating separate entities to handle generation, transmission and distribution.

The need for reforms in the state was felt as at present the UPSEB is losing nearly 43 per cent of electricity to transmission and distribution losses, 12 per cent to theft and another 20 per cent on account of supply to the agriculture sector.

In real terms the UPSEB has been able to recover only 24 per cent of power bought and sold in the state. In other words, consumers who pay are actually subsidising inefficiency and theft. The state’s power requirement is in the range of around 4000 MW per day.

The creation of separate entities for generation, transmission and distribution will make the power sector more efficient as it will be possible to identify the exact area where losses are taking place. A separate distribution company will also enable the state recover the rightful tariff for the power supplied.

The striking workers have, however, said the corporatisation and unbundling of the SEB was the first step towards privatisation and they would stand to lose their employment and livelihood.

These apprehensions appear to be unfounded as the UP Government has stated that it is prepared to provide in the statute that no employee will be fired. Their terms and conditions will not be tampered with and their salaries will be protected.

This is one of the reasons that the striking employees’ unions have no set of demands and they are merely calling their agitation an “ideological battle”. They have been maintaining that the privatisation of the state electricity boards, even on a future date, is not in the nation’s interest.

The real reason, officials point out, behind the strike is that it is controlled by a small group of “mafia” which has been exploiting the inefficient power system in the state to make personal gains.

Though the workers stand to lose nothing from the reforms programme, this small section which has a vested interests in the inefficient system, will stand to lose everything under an efficient system.