HC: Power board (JSEB)cheating people
- CBI has dirt on officials
OUR CORRESPONDENT
JSEB: Under scanner

Ranchi, May 18: Jharkhand High Court today hauled up the state electricity board for “playing a fraud” on the people while the CBI told judges it had evidence to prove criminality of action of several JSEB officials and employees.

A high court division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice H.C.Mishra also pulled up the state government for failing in its responsibility and gave it one “last opportunity” to immediately take action against corrupt officials of JSEB .

If it failed to do so, the court said it would be constrained to regulate the issue of maintaining standards of power supply and warned of strict orders that may go against any institution involved in providing electricity to the people of the state.

According to sources, JSEB had dues of over Rs 3,000 crore mostly from large industrial houses and government utilities. Some of the money is also locked in litigation.

The judges, who were hearing a PIL filed by one M.S. Mittal in 2001, said more than a decade had passed, but there was no improvement yet. “Though the main petition is only of 18 pages, orders passed by the court have run into more than 100 pages…. The only interest of the court is to ensure that there is uninterrupted power supply in the state,” the bench said.

Turning to the board’s oft-repeated excuses of technical difficulties, the bench said those were unacceptable as it was the board’s duty to provide adequate power supply.

The CBI, which was directed to investigate financial and technical irregularities in the board, informed the court that there was sufficient proof of criminality in the actions of officers and employees of the board and requested the court for more time to conclude it probe.

The court, after going through the CBI’s confidential report, observed there were serious illegalities by the board and its people who had favoured private companies resulting in the loss of crores of rupees.

However, the court clarified that details of the report should not be divulged at this stage as it could hamper the investigation.

Counsel for CBI Mokhtar Khan said in 2005, the agency submitted to then chief secretary a list of 177 JSEB employees who were found to be indulging in corruption. But, till now no action had been taken.

Khan told the court that while the CBI had received aid from a technical team of Central Electricity Authority, it was yet to receive help from the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to investigate the financial bungling.

In the end, though the CBI pleaded for three months’ time, the court granted it only a month to file an updated report.

The case will be heard again on June 20.

Turning to Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the court asked it to continue supplying 100MW to JSEB. On being told that the extra power wasn’t being used, it asked JSEB to talk to DVC and work out a way to use the extra energy.

A senior JSEB official admitted the power utility was saddled with a plethora of problems, including funds and staff crunch and above all, the lack of a work culture. “There has been no systematic functioning of the board in the last 10 years,” he maintained.