The Hindu : Thackeray's charge not borne out by facts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 21, 2002

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Thackeray's charge not borne out by facts

By Alok Mukherjee

NEW DELHI AUG. 20. The Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray's reported charge of ``inefficiency'' against the Union Power Minister, Suresh Prabhu, simply flies in the face of facts. Taking over the Power Ministry two years ago after the death of Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, Mr. Prabhu has turned out to be among the top performers of the Vajpayee Government, his singular achievement being the selling of power sector reforms to the reluctant State Governments.

Over the last two years, he has successfully cracked the deadlock over the repayment of nearly Rs. 42,000 crore dues of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) to Central Government organisations like the Railways, the Coal Ministry and power-generating companies; goaded States into taking up power sector reforms by linking it to additional Central assistance and unbundled distribution of electricity from generation so that fresh investment could come into this sector.

Mr. Prabhu has also worked on the plan to provide power on demand by 2012 and in this endeavour of his there were no fanciful declarations. The Minister had held repeated meetings with power generating utilities, the State Governments, the private sector and financial institutions to identify each project in the various segments of the power industry — thermal, hydel and non-conventional sources — to work out the precise details of additional generating capacity to be created.

Also, for the first time, each and every project under conception or implementation was reviewed by the Ministry over a two-day session in order to identify how much actual capacity would be added during the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007) by studying the actual status of each project — whether land and environmental clearances had been secured, the tying up of funds and other nitty-gritty of the projects.

He also tackled the major problem that cropped up with most of the foreign firms pulling out of their committed power projects in the country.

Realising that the global scenario had changed in which most of the foreign companies had lost interest in long-gestation, capital-intensive power projects, the Power Ministry reworked the capacity addition plans by apportioning greater responsibility to the Government agencies in setting up new plants.

In fact, the reworked plan is such that the commitment of making power available on demand by 2012 can be achieved even without any foreign company's participation. ``If they come, they are welcome; if not, we can take care of our requirements,'' the Minister had told The Hindu sometime back. The reasons for the Sena supremo wanting to get rid of his nominee from the Union Cabinet lie elsewhere. Some weeks back, Mr. Thackeray — without mentioning names — had commented in a newspaper interview about the functioning of his two nominees in the Union Cabinet then— Suresh Prabhu and Manohar Joshi.

His contention was that while one wanted to be ``the next Mr. Clean after Rajiv Gandhi,'' the other always said ``there is no scope.'' Mr. Thackeray's candid comments leave little to imagination.

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Thackeray's charge not borne out by facts