Ranchi, July 21: The progress in the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana in the state has been miserable and the implementing agencies

AMIT GUPTA

Ranchi, July 20: Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) owes Rs 800 crore to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and is the only defaulter for the past couple of years.

Top government sources said the matter was strongly raised during the July 18 review meeting of DVC by a consultative committee for ministry of power chaired by Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

Govt fails to pay subsidy to PSEB The Punjab government has failed to comply with the directive of the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to pay subsidy on account of free power to agricultural pump sets in instalments in advance at the beginning of each quarter.

Chairman of the PSEB Y.S. Ratra has said the Board has decided to ban transfers of all categories of officers and employees from July 15 to October 31 to ensure minimum disturbance in the offices during the on-going paddy season. Ratra has warned the delinquents of severe departmental action for dereliction of duty.

Funds crunch limits options Starved of funds to purchase adequate power to meet the demand in the state, the PSEB authorities have started imposing heavy power cuts, varying from 6 to 8 hours daily. Sources said the demand for power yesterday was in the range of 1,750 lakh units against the availability of power of 1,501 lakh units. Consequently, the PSEB resorted to power cuts in various areas. The cuts have to be imposed despite the good rainfall that has helped the PSEB in a big way to keep the consumption of power in the farm sector on the lower side.

Three months after Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal mooted the Rs 80-crore energy saving Atal Bijli Bachat Yojana, envisaging free distribution of CFLs, Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board is finally ready to introduce the scheme. Yesterday, HPSEB top officials finalised the tender documents to start bulk purchase of compact fluorescent lamps directly from the manufacturing firms. At least eight leading CFL manufacturers have already shown interest to supply lamps as per specifications of the state government.

Enquiry and complaint are two chronic problems which plague divisional and subdivisional offices of the Assam State Electricity Board all over the State. Annoyed by frequent ringing of the telephone, most instruments in the complaint rooms of the ASEB offices remain uncradled. This is done just to avoid complaints. But after implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, ASEB's ploy to avoid complaints suffered a serious setback.

Jangveer Singh The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) is getting pushed in the red to meet needs of non-paying consumers and earning the dubious distinction of topping the country in the purchase of costly power. According to data available with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the board had to purchase power to avoid cuts in past few years. The board's power purchase has increased from three to four times since 2004-05. The board purchased power worth Rs 6,000 crore in 2007-08 compared to power purchases of Rs 2,230 crore in 2004-05.

While the Delhi government has been talking of making the power sector competitive by permitting open access for domestic consumers, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC), the power regulator, is perplexed at the poor response from stake holders for the public hearing on open access scheduled for June 27. Much below expectations, the Commission has received only about 20 to 25 comments of participants till June 17, the last date of submitting applications.

Even as Punjab farmers have been hard hit due to the acute shortage of farm workers for sowing paddy, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has added to their woes by refusing to provide temporary power connections for tube wells. It has been a regular practice of the PSEB to grant temporary agricultural power (AP) connections for the past three years in succession. Last year, a little more than 27,000 applications for temporary AP connections were disposed of by June 20 against charges of Rs 1,500 per BHP.