Minister asks SEBs to pull up socks

Kumaramangalam pulled up the SEBs for staying away from the workshop and said that he was appalled by their indifference and lack of seriousness on the burning issue of power sector reforms. SEBs of Jammu & Kashmir, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya Punjab did not attend the workshop.

He said that the purpose of reforms was to run the power utilities on commercial lines as the existing system has failed and the SEBs arenot in a position to pay the dues of the central public sector undertakings which has reached a level of over Rs 23,000 crore.

Painting a grim picture of the Indian power sector, Kumaramangalam said that though only 50 per cent of the households have been officially connected while 20 per cent receive power "not on record". Only 50 per cent of consumers are metered while the transmission and distribution losses at the national level will be over 50 to 55 per cent.

He called upon the SEBs to address the issue of metering on a priority basis in a bid to curb power thefts and losses. "By not metering SEBs are abator of power thefts and they are in turn facilitating these thefts," he alleged.

Kumaramangalam said that power thefts menace can be tackled though the installation of remote operating meters at distributers’ end. As in the case of default in telephone bill payments, the days are not far off when one need not go to the premises, but cut the electricity connection from the distributing unit itself,Kumaramangalam later told reporters.

Kumaramangalam said that such computerised units could be installed at the electricity distribution centres. "You don’t pay the bill and it will get disconnected," he said, adding that this will ensure compliance as far as payment of bills are concerned.

The minister said that the power sector can really usher in information technology revolution in the country. He called upon the SEBs to take advantage of technological advances and its convergence to bring in power reforms.

"The more is electricity distribution network, the more will be reach of it. We have to cover more and more areas as far as the reach of electricity connection is concerned," he said.

Union minister of state for power J Mehta said that even after 50 years of independence, the power sector could provide only 300 units per person– far below the world average. She stressed the need for a serious thinking this issue.

Mehta said that additional generation of 1,15,000 mw will be required in nextdecade to meet the country;s power need as per the recent survey by the Central Electricity Authority. She observed that the transmission and distribution network in the villages with a population of one lakh can be improved through the participation of independent power producers.