The power department of Himachal Pradesh is ready with the draft proposal to be submitted to the Cabinet to complete the process of unbundling the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB). An agreement had been already signed with the boards Joint Action Committee (JAC) to go ahead with the unbundling. The Cabinet will meet next week,after Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal returns from Mumbai,to clear the draft to formalise three separate entities to handle independent functions of generation,transmission and distribution of power. The Cabinet could not take up the unbundling issue during the last meeting because of the absence of Principal Secretary (Power) Deepak Sanan,who was in New Delhi for a meeting. The Centre has fixed June 15 as deadline for Himachal to unbundle the board and file a compliance report. Two days ago,Sanan and HPSEB Chairman Subash Negi met Dhumal,who also holds the portfolio of power,and prepared the approach paper for distribution of the assets and liabilities of the HPSEB between the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation and the Himachal Pradesh Transmission Corporation. It is understood that Dhumal has given his approval to the proposed model for unbundling,without privatising any function of the board,which will remain a state-owned corporation. After unbundling,the board will become HPSEB Limited and have the main role in the distribution of power. There will be no further restructuring. Most of the assets will also stay with the new corporation. The government had agreed to the terms of the HPSEB Employees Joint Front to protect the employees interests and send its employees on deputation to the other corporations handling generation and transmission. Sunil Grover,convenor of the JAC,said: Once the Cabinet gives its green signal,we will bring out a strategy paper to set our new agenda for making the HPSEB Corporation a model for rest of the country. The draft proposal prepared by the government is perhaps the best.
