AIPEF demands cancelation of franchisee for Ranchi & Jamshedpur
Vinod Kumar Gupta, 07-Dec-2012

Friday December 7, 2012

Ranchi

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has sought the intervention of Chief Minister Jharkhand in resolving the crisis by cancelling the franchisee agreement.

Shaliender Dubey Secretary General AIPEF has written to CM that all employees and engineers of Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) have proceeded on total strike as soon as board signed the franchisee agreement of Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

Strike has crippled functioning of every vital establishment in the state on Thursday. Barring the capital, the power scenario is very bad in the districts where the JSEB is yet to come up with any alternate arrangement.

JSEB engineers said that the board could have started with loss-making districts like Latehar, Daltongunj and Garhwa instead of Ranchi and Jamshedpur to experiment the franchisee scheme.

Dubey said that the hasty decision of signing agreement has resulted into unprecedented industrial unrest in JSEB. Urban distribution of Ranchi and Jamshedpur is high revenue earning area for JSEB; therefore, franchisee of such industrial and commercial cities is not at all in the interest of state.

Letter mentions that present realization of JSEB is Rs 2.50 per unit in Ranchi and Rs 2.80 per unit in Jamshedpur which is much higher than agreed price for private franchisee. JSEB shall supply electricity to private franchisee at Rs 1.78 per unit in Ranchi and at Rs 2.12 per unit in Jamshedpur. Ultimately these losses occurring in the name of franchisee shall be imposed on common consumers through increased tariff.

Dubey has mentioned in his letter that urban distribution franchisee agreement has miserably failed in Agra (UP) and in Nagpur, Aurangabad and Jalgaon (Maharashtra). In case of Agra Accountant General Report says that UPPCL suffered a loss of Rs 489 crore in 2 years. In Nagpur, Aurangabad and Jalgaon, Private franchisee owes more than Rs.500 crore towards power bills to be paid to MSEDCL.

AIPEF fully supports strike of power employees and engineers of JSEB against franchisee. Any punitive action is taken against employees and engineers of Jharkhand, and then it will have serious repercussions for which responsibility will rest with government.