Date:25/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/25/stories/2008092555170100.htm

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UDF to boycott all-party meet on KSEB

Girish Menon

P.P. Thankachan: Cabinet decision has made its recast a fait accompli.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) on Wednesday decided to boycott Thursday’s all-party conference convened by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to discuss unbundling of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB).

The UDF decided to boycott the conference since a Cabinet decision taken on August 21 had made the recast a fait accompli.

The conference has been convened to work out the modalities of establishing the company, including preparing a detailed study of its assets and liabilities.

According to UDF’s assessment, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is pursuing the energy policy announced in 1998 when Pinarayi Vijayan, now State secretary of the party, was Electricity Minister in the E.K. Nayanar-headed Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The policy envisages the setting up of five profit centres. The proposal had been opposed by KSEB unions then. “The Electricity Act was passed only in 2003. The CPI (M) laid the foundations for the split five years before that,” UDF convener P.P. Thankachan said at a press conference after the coalition’s high-power committee meeting.

He said the LDF government did not bother to convene an all-party meeting to formulate an approach and jointly put pressure on the Central government for an extension.

The UDF said it was not opposed to the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the State.