Punjab to be power deficit even after 3 years: PSEB engineers
Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 23
The claims of the government of making Punjab power surplus were “hollow” and the state was “directionless” in this vital sector.

Alleging that the much-touted upcoming power projects were just paper plans, executive members of the PSEB Engineers Association said the management too could not be absolved of its duty of protecting the commercial interests of the board.

Association president H.S. Bedi said the board had been a mute spectator in the face of repeated defaults by the government in lieu of subsidy to various categories of customers.

As per a recent tariff order, the state had to pay an yearly subsidy of Rs 3,144 crore through monthly instalments of Rs 294 crore from September 2009, but it had failed to do so till now, said.

Instead, the board approached the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) to defer the power hike, knowing well that such a petition was infructuous as only the state government could approach the commission, for which it had to pay a higher subsidy amount, he added.

Clarifying that there was no mention of unbundling of power boards in the country as was being projected in the media, he said vested interests had projected that unbundling was mandatory as per the Electricity Act, 2003.

Association patron Padamjit Singh said Clause 131 of the Act allowed the state electricity boards (SEBs) to create a company for generation, transmission and distribution and another for trading.

Singh said the proposed four power generation plants would be operational in the next four years.

Presently, the state was short of at least 15 per cent of the demand of power and it is expected that it will grow at the rate of 8 to 10 per cent per annum in the coming years. “How can one claim that Punjab would be a power surplus state in the next three years?” he added.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), which monitors the installation of power generation plants, has not included even a single plant of Punjab in the list of power plants that were expected to be completed by 2012,” he revealed.