The Hindu : `Govt. targeting KSEB workers with ulterior designs'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 22, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

`Govt. targeting KSEB workers with ulterior designs'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Sept. 21. The KSEB Officers' Association (KSEBOA) has said it had genuine reasons to suspect the motives behind the ongoing propaganda unleashed by the Government about what should be done to overcome the problems in the power sector in the State. At a press conference here today, the association's general secretary, K.R. Unnithan, said the Government, using the weak monsoon as an alibi, was only trying to speed up the reform measures suggested by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the power sector.

``The measures being considered by the Government seem to be designed purposefully to create more problems in the sector. The propaganda is that more load-sheddings, cuts in the salaries and other benefits of the KSEB employees and privatisation of the power sector were the only options left since the public had resisted the move for a steep increase in power tariff,'' he said.

Mr. Unnithan said the Government was trying to prepare the ground for all these ADB-designed measures by resorting to the propaganda that the employees were the real cause of all the problems in the KSEB.

One allegation was that the employees were overpaid. Certain private parties interested in taking over power distribution in the State too were behind this propaganda because they would like to keep the wages as low as possible, he said.

``Their strategy is to isolate the employees first and then launch their attack,'' he said.

Mr. Unnithan said the Government and these vested interest groups were using totally wrong statistics to buttress their arguments. In fact, the salaries and other benefits being extended to the KSEB employees were lower than those being enjoyed by the employees of other State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and Central power utilities like the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

Giving the data from the latest annual reports of various institutions, including the KSEB, he said the expenses on salaries, other allowances and pensions constituted only 13 per cent of the total annual outgo in the case of the KSEB.

The all-India average for the SEBs was 13.27 per cent. It was 19.3 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 19.2 per cent in Karnataka and 24.3 per cent in Punjab.

Also, in the KSEB, the employees' workload was on the higher side when compared to the other SEBs. As per the data for the year 2001-02, for every 1,000 consumers, there were only 3.74 employees in the KSEB. The all-India average in this case was 8.97 employees per 1,000 consumers.

Giving the Planning Commission's data for the years from 1994-95 to 1999-2000, he said the consumer-employee ratio in the State was among the lowest in the country.

When the statistics relating to the quantity of power supplied per employee was also considered, the KSEB's position was at the top of the list. For every million units of electricity sold, the KSEB had under its rolls 2.35 employees.

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