Rajasthan bans strikes, slaps Section 144 as power board is unbundled

JAIPUR, JULY 21: The Ashok Gehlot government has invoked the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act (RESMA), banned strikes by emplo...

JAIPUR, JULY 21: The Ashok Gehlot government has invoked the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act (RESMA), banned strikes by employees, promulgated Section 144 and deployed police at vital installations all over the state as it unbundled the Rajasthan State Electricity Board (RSEB) into five companies on Wednesday night.

Though no strike or incidents of sabotage were reported from anywhere on Thursday, some RSEB employees owing allegiance to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh shouted slogans against the government at the RSEB headquarters here. As the authorities prepared to detain them and sent for a bus to take them away, the employees dispersed. A report of a demonstration also came from an RSEB office in the Bani Park area here.

An official spokesman said it was too early to claim that the worst was over. He said the government would watch the situation for at least a week.

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The reform programme, started by the Gehlot government on June 1, gave effect to the Rajasthan Power Reforms Act, 1999. Of the five new companies, the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam would own and control the thermal-, gas-based and hydel power-generating stations. The Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam would own and control 66 KV to 400 KV sub-stations and associated transmission lines. Three distribution companies, each called DISCOM, located at Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur, have been assigned eight RSEB circles each and the RSEB assets, liabilities and employees have been distributed among them.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told mediapersons here on Thursday that there would be no retrenchment in the new companies. Nor would any reduction in wages, allowances, pension or retirement benefits take place. The security and continuity of service of employees would be guaranteed. When asked if the government would have any say in the running of the companies, the Chief Minister, who had placed them under senior IAS officers on Wednesday night, replied: “None.”

A power tariff regulatory commission is already in place to decide tariff rates. Gehlot went ahead with the split of the RSEB despite reservations of senior ministers, particularly those belonging to the farming communities. However, they fell in line once they realised that he had already made up his mind.

RSEB chairman P N Bhandari was also opposed to the government move. According to sources, he favoured an alternative reform programme, suggested by the Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by former chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur. The employees resisted the decision and vowed to fight it tooth and nail.

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The RSEB was running into huge losses with its current accumulated borrowings placed at Rs 7,212 crore. They include Rs 1,606 crore taken from the state government and Rs 679 crore obtained as short-term loans. It owes another Rs 707 crore to its employees and suppliers. The government hopes to attract an investment of Rs 10,500 crore in the power sector in the next seven years. It hopes that once the reforms take place, it would get the first instalment of Rs 675 crore from a Rs 2,700 crore World Bank loan.