PSPCL’s poor management skills --TRIBUNE letters

The power crisis in Punjab is the result of the poor management of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). I would like to ask the PSPCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director KD Chaudhri about the hollow and void claims made by him earlier in the year stating that there would be no power cuts in Punjab this summer.

Not only this, you even said that, "if at all the power supply is disrupted it will be because of load factor or a technical snag but certainly not because of power cuts" .You also said that there is no fear of scant monsoon and people in Punjab don't have to worry at all as PSPCL will meet all requirements this year, which showed your over-confidence everywhere.

Certainly there are some faults in the policies and management od PSPCL. We, the people of Punjab are not only facing long power cuts of about 8- 10 hours daily but have also been forced to pay 12% more power tariff. Where is the sense of justice, Mr Chaudhri? On one hand you make promises which are never fulfilled and to add to the misery, you ask people to pay more for a service that is not provided.

A 24-hour uninterrupted power supply is being enjoyed by Badals, you and few other beneficiaries. It is a still a distant dream for the common man.

GURPREET S. MALHOTRA, Kansal (Mohali)
II

In the editorial 'Why power cuts’ (July 26), the importance of Electricity Act 2003 as a panacea for ills of power sector is over emphasised. The creation of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) under Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 was more appropriate to the socio- economic realities of the Indian state and had the SEBs been allowed to earn a surplus of 3 per cent to be ploughed back into capacity generation, the present situation would not have arisen and there would have been no need for a new variant in the form of new Electricity Act.

The capacity generation under private sector has started to show its initial blues as most of the IPPs are asking for tariff revisions citing inflation in cost of imported coal on account of change in laws in Indonesia. With the kind of mutual distrust and policy paralysis we are in, these decisions are likely to be delayed hampering the sector and jeoparadising the public money invested by the banks in this sector.

The new corporation has done nothing to increase generation capacity. It is not due to financial crunch but due to lack of will to add capacity under state sector as funds are easily available from funding agencies.

NISHA, Panchkula