UPSEB bifurcation to stay: Kalyan

Talking to newspersons here, Singh said it had been decided to bifurcate the state power board with the aim of improving the poor state of power system and expediting development work. It was the duty of the government to frame policies and of the officials and employees to execute them.

He said no government could give the right of framing policies to officials and employees and any employee hampering the work of implementation of the government policies would be strictly dealt with.

Appealing to power engineers not to strike work, Singh said there would be no change in the service conditions and salaries etc of the employees even after the division of the UPSEB. Nor would any member of the staff be retrenched.Now when the employees had nothing to lose from this decision, their plan to strike work would tantamount to playing with the needs of the people and the government would not tolerate this, he clarified.

Singh said the state would need an additional 14,500 mw power by 2011 AD And require an amount of Rs 69 crore. But because of the poor financial condition of the power board, the financial institutions were not prepared to give the board this big an amount.

The Chief Minister said a power regulatory commission had been constituted in the state, which, keeping the interest of the power companies in mind, would work for the purchase, distribution, supply, conditions for use, quality and payment of rates and regulations for electricity supply.He said NOIDA and Kanpur had been selected for the first phase of privatisation of power distribution and other cities would be covered later.The thermal and hydel generation corporation would be divided into smaller generation companies. This would help them beeconomically self-sufficient.He said separate corporations would be made for supply and distribution and in the final phase all generation units would be privatised. he supply corporation would then be divided into two companies. While one company would take care of the ownership and management of the grid property, the other would look after the management of the power system and its sale and purchase.

He said in the final phase smaller distribution companies would be formed which would later be privatised. An organising committee led by the chief secretary would be constituted for the effective implementation of this programme. Secretary, energy would be the chariman of the implementation task force formed for the purpose.