Punjab Newsline
Punjab among nine states not given loan under power development and reform programme
VINOD KUMAR GUPTA
Friday, 22 January 2010
CHANDIGARH: Punjab is among the nine states to which Power Finance Corporation of India has not disbursed any loan under “Re-structured Accelerated power Development and Power Reform Programme” (APDRP) during the current financial year. All these states have failed to unbundle the power boards to bring reforms.

According to review report put up by Ministry of Power 1283 projects at the cost of Rs 4730.38 crore have been approved to 22 states under this scheme .These states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tripura and Jammu & Kashmir under the scheme.

The review report mentions that Ministry of Power has sanctioned 47 projects in Punjab amounting to Rs. 272.85 crore under the APDRP but no loan has been granted to state under the scheme up to December end. Other states where the projects have been sanctioned but loans have not been granted by Power Finance Corporation are Kerala, Himachal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim Jammu & Kashmir, Chhatisgarh Assam and Tripura.

It can be clearly observed that most of states where loans has not been disbursed are those states where reform in the shape of unbundling of state electricity boards are yet to be completed. So it is a clear case of arm twisting of states by Ministry of Power to force the states to unbundled the electricity boards.

It may be mentioned that "Re-structured APDRP" for eleventh Plan was approved on July 31, 2008 as a Central Sector Scheme. The focus of the programme is on actual, demonstrable performance in terms of AT&C loss reduction in transmission system of the power utilities.

According to review report so far Rs 1284.24 Crore has been released under the revised APDRP scheme since start of revised APRDP scheme, out of which Rs 1259.24 Crore is the loan to Power Finance Corporation to disburse the same to power utilities and Rs 25.00 Crore is grant to PFC as rolling advance against fee to the nodal agency.