Breather for Assam over power reforms

The Centre has granted Assam's request for a two-month extension to comply with the legislative provision of unbundling its state electricity board (SEB) into generation, transmission and distribution companies.

This is the second extension granted to the state, which received a two-month extension earlier. Power ministry officials, however, said the government was unwilling to discuss some of the issues raised by Left parties as "they were completely detached from reality". They said they had also briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the matter.

The officials, however, said the government remained committed to altering some of the clauses of the Electricity Act, if states faced genuine difficulty in implementing them. They added the states would not be given more time for unbundling.

"Assam's case was unique as they had been given only two months' time. It was very difficult to factor in all the elements of the Act, so we gave them another extension," an official said.

The Centre, as part of the review of the Electricity Act, had allowed state transmission utilities to trade in power for another year and extended the deadline for unbundling of 13 SEBs by 2-12 months.

While Assam was given the shortest extension of two months from June 10 this year, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have time till June 10, 2005.

Chattisgarh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab and Gujarat have been given an extended deadline of six months for unbundling their respective SEBs, while Madhya Pradesh has time till the end of he year to set up separate companies.