GUWAHATI, Dec 1 ? The Assam Government is going ahead with the reform programme of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) despite the opposition of the employees, and the Board is likely to be unbundled into three companies shortly.
Talking to The Assam Tribune here today, the Minister of State for Power, Pradyut Bordoloi, said that reform of the power sector is a must to improve the power scenario of the State and ?the people of Assam deserve better power supply.?
He alleged that some misinformation was spread over the issue of reforms and asserted that the Government is not going to privatise the ASEB as claimed by certain sections. He said that he is planning to meet the representatives of the employees? unions of the ASEB tomorrow to remove the misgivings.
Giving an account of the reforms programme, Bordoloi said that the Government thoroughly studied the power sector reform models of the states like West Bengal, Orissa and Delhi before finalising the reforms programme and Assam?s model for reforms would be more or less like the West Bengal model. He said that West Bengal carried out the reforms programme much earlier with success.
The Minister revealed that the Government has finalised a deadline of December 10 for unbundling of the ASEB ?in the interest of bringing in more efficiency and improve the overall power situation.? He said that the ultimate aim of the reform programme is to bifurcate the ASEB into five Government companies- one each for generation and transmission and three for distribution.
But at the initial stage three companies-one each for generation, transmission and distribution-would be formed, he added. He expressed the view that the bifurcation of the ASEB and the ensuing competition among the companies would improve the level of efficiency and improve the quality of service. He also assured that the careers of the existing employees of the ASEB would be protected and hoped that his proposed meeting with the employees would remove the misgivings.
The Government of Assam has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Asian Development Bank and as per the same, the State would receive about Rs 1200 crore for power sector reforms. Bordoloi said that to receive the money also, the State Government has to prove that ?we mean business? and go ahead with the reform programme.
He revealed that the state received the first instalment of the money from the ADB and the second instalment is due in January. But the ADB would never release the money if the reform programme is not carried ahead as per the agreement, he added. He also said that the fund to be received from the ADB is only one dimension of the reform programme and for the same, the State is also receiving funds from the Central Government, which is expected to go a long way in improving the overall power scenario in Assam.
Replying to a question on the liabilities of the ASEB, Bordoloi said that the Government is examining the aspect of clearing the liabilities to the employees and also to other organisations for purchasing power and hoped that an acceptable solution would be worked out soon. He assured that the Government cannot back out of its committed liabilities and said that the Government is also not keen on passing the liabilities to the companies to be formed by unbundling the ASEB.
It may be mentioned here that the employees of the ASEB have already started an agitation in protest against the Government?s move to bifurcate the Board. The employees observed nine-hour hunger strike yesterday and they have also threatened to go ahead with a 72-hour strike from December 7 if the Government goes ahead with the reforms programme. Now it remains to be seen whether the Government manages to persuade the employees to accept the reforms programme to avoid confrontation in the days to come.