Trade unions turn the heat on MSEB

The MSEB Workers' Federation, which has been protesting all attempts at "privatisation" of the Board, has mounted a veiled attack on the state government alleging that MSEB has been losing 1,042 mw of electricity everyday.

The allegation comes on the heels of incidents of vandalism in sub-urban Mumbai and Yavatmal where consumers vent their ire on the staff of the state electricity board when they were forced to endure power cuts.

Executive president of the Federation, Mohan Sharma, told newsmen that four units at various power generation stations of MSEB were shut down for annual maintenance. This had resulted in the MSEB's generation capacity falling by 502 mw.

These units include, Koradi Thermal Power Station unit number 5 (200 mw), Bhusaval TPS unit number 1 (62.5 mw), Parli TPS unit number 1 (30 mw) and Nashik TPS unit number 5 (210 mw). Sharma questioned why the annual maintenance of these units was not completed before the onset of summer. Sharma said that the units were not functioning for the last five to six months.

"The units should ordinarily have been functional before April, but even now the maintenance can be speeded up," he said. Sharma also revealed that three more units had been shut down and charged that MSEB was not taking adequate steps to get them on line.

These units include, Koradi TPS unit number 1 (120 mw), Chandrapur TPS unit number 3 (210 mw) and Khaparkheda TPS unit number 3 (210 mw). The total loss in energy generation from the units shut down for repairs comes to 540 mw.

In addition, Sharma said that if energy due from Reliance Energy, is taken into consideration, another 250 mw should come into the state grid.

REL, Sharma claimed, was committed to provide 500 mw to the state electricity grid, but as one unit of 250 mw was out of order, it was only able to provide half of what it could. The MSEB had done precious little to pressurise REL into expediting the repair process, Sharma observed.

He said that the load shedding in the state could come down to 2,400 mw from the present level of 3,700 mw if MSEB got its act together.

Sharma alleged that the Democratic Front (DF) Government in Maharashtra was keen on scuttling the agitation of MSEB employees against the move of "corporatising" the Board and hence was resorting to these tactics. The agitation is slated to begin from May 3.

The union leader also criticised successive state governments for not increasing generation capacity in the state since 1991. He charged that the acute power shortage was due to myopic policies of rulers of the state.

Sharma also condemned the decision to give preferential treatment to Mumbai sub-urbs and satellite towns at the cost of rest of Maharashtra.

Blackouts in rest of Maharashtra have been increased from three hours to four hours daily to allow sub-urban Mumbai get its regular demand of electricity.

In rural Maharashtra, planned outages extend upto nine hours everyday. The trade and industry from Vidarbha has already condemned this move of the MSEB and demanded that the decision be reversed.