Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003
Tuesday, Mar 25, 2003 |
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Kerala
By Our Staff Reporter
The MLAs accompanied by the Kerala Electricity Workers Federation general secretary, M. Sukumara Pillai, were addressing a press conference here today after a visit to the Sabarigiri power house in Moozhiyar this forenoon. According to them, the power consumers in the State are genuinely apprehensive that the present manner of crisis management in availing power from certain alien agencies at a higher cost will spark off a potential tariff revision. "The Electricity Minister, Kadavoor Sivadasan, has been "consciously observing silence'' on the issue after the shut-down of the Sabarigiri power house following a fire outbreak 18 days ago, they alleged. ``The Electricity Minister consoles himself that the fire mishap and the resultant loss and unforeseen stoppage of power generation can be managed with guaranteed insurance coverage and by availing 100 MW of power from the Power Trading Corporation and the rest from various other agencies. Does he mean that no serious implication has emerged out of the Moozhiyar mishap which would have a direct bearing on the socio-economic sector in general and the additional burden on the Kerala State Electricity Board in particular,'' they asked. They criticised the alleged deputing of casual labourers and last grade staff to operate sophisticated equipment at the power house. The victim of the Moozhiyar mishap was a peon, never supposed to be at the control room of the power house, and this amply testified the allegation of inept handling of the power project by the KSEB, they alleged. They said a pertinent question that arose in this context was whether the KSEB authorities had ensured mandatory safety and security measures at the power house before permitting experts of a private company to conduct a preliminary survey and measurement at the power house as part of its proposed renovation. Another question, which required clarification from the Board authorities, was that whether they had ensured a fool-proof fire-fighting mechanism at the power house, they said. Mr. Viswom criticised the strategy adopted by the KSEB and the Government for crisis management to purchase power from the Power Trading Corporation and other agencies costing not less than Rs 2.40 per unit as against the 10 to 18 paise per unit of hydel power. He alleged that this had been done despite the fact that the Brahmapuram and Kozhikode diesel power plants were in working condition to generate 60 MW and 180 MW respectively at a lesser price. According to the MLAs, the sequence of the rectification works shows that the completion of the work is directly related to the availability of the required spare parts after identifying and assessing the volume and area of fault. However, they said the reports received from the KSEB source showed that it was quite unlikely to complete the repair works and resume power generation at the Sabarigiri power house in the next two months. The non-availability of the spare parts was another major hurdle in the timely completion of repair work, they added. The former general secretary of the Kerala Electricity Officers' Federation K. Somarajan, was also present at the press conference.
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