The Orissa High Court today extended the stay on regulation of power supply by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to Orissa up to 30th of this month.
Earlier the court, while hearing a public interest petition on the matter, had passed an interim order on May 21 restricting NTPC from regulating power supply to the state till June 23 and then subsequently extended the stay up to June 26.
The public interest litigation (PIL) mainly pertained to threat by NTPC to regulate power supply to the state following non-payment of dues by Grid Corporation of Orissa and sought court's intervention to safeguard the interests of the consumers who have been paying their electricity bills regularly.
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Meanwhile, the Orissa Consumer Association today filed an intervening petition on the matter. The court has set June 27 as the date for further hearing on the PIL.
NTPC had threatened to regulate power supply to Orissa demanding clearance of its outstanding dues pending against Gridco. However, Gridco, which is facing an acute cash crunch, has expressed its inability to pay NTPC unless it received a loan from Power Finance Corporation (PFC).
PFC, sometime back, had sanctioned a Rs 1200 crore loan to Gridco of which Rs 200 crore has been released till date. PFC has set certain stiff conditions for compliance by the state government, Gridco and distribution companies for release of the rest loan money.
Besides the government guarantee, PFC has asked the state government for an undertaking not to recover any dues from Gridco till its loan is fully repaid by the latter.
Sources said, although the government is ready to provide guarantee, the PFC condition on recovery of dues, including interest and principal, from Gridco is not acceptable. Meanwhile, the matter has been referred to the cabinet for a final decision on the matter.
The state government is also planning to send a team of officers to Delhi for further negotiation with PFC on the loan issue.