Power major replaces CEO over huge bills
Abhishek G Dastidar, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 14, 2009

Under fire for alleged mismanagement of power supply services in the past four months, Reliance-backed discom BSES on Wednesday removed its chief executive officer Arun Kanchan.

Sources said Gopal Saxena, the COO, was likely to be made the CEO of BSES Rajdhani, servicing south, central and west Delhi. Ramesh Narayan, a senior vice-president, will head BSES Yamuna, supplying power to east Delhi areas.

Kanchan, who had been holding both the posts for over a year, could be moved to Reliance Energy’s board. No official order has been issued.

While the BSES said the changes were “routine”, the Delhi government said they were the fallout of the company’s poor performance.

“This is a corrective action they’ve taken for their lapses after pressure from the DERC and from us,” Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told Hindustan Times. “There were a lot of complaints, so something had to be wrong with them. They were asked to take remedial measures like this one.”

As per the licence agreements with the Delhi government, the two discoms are supposed to have separate CEOs. The DERC had given BSES time till October 20 to appoint another CEO along with Kanchan. Sources said the company had no choice but to replace Kanchan altogether.