Puducherry government in favour of EB

PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry Government has decided against the corporatisation of the electricity department and would be writing to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) in this regard, said power minister T Thiagarajan on Friday.Addressing a press conference, he said that the government would request the JERC to cancel the scheduled public hearing at New Delhi on May 29 in this regard as it was not necessary. Already, petitions  objecting to corporatisation received from staff have been uploaded on the JERC’s website.He said that after a discussion with chief minister N Rangasamy, the government had decided to continue with the electricity department and appealed to the staff to withdraw their proposed strike in this regard.Earlier, the government had agreed in principle to corporatise the electricity department of Puducherry in line with the requirements of the Electricity Act,2003, on the advise of the JERC, said Thiagarajan.KPMG Advisory Services Limited, Chennai, had been appointed as the consultants to draw up a roadmap for the corporatisation of the department. The report of the consultancy firm had been placed before the government for a final decision. As per the directions of JERC, the electricity department published the final report on the roadmap to corporatisation on the official web site of the department calling upon stakeholders to send in their suggestions and objections by January 15.Enhanced honorarium to bill collectors Thiagarajan said that an enhanced monthly honorarium of `100 would be  paid to bill collectors in retrospective effect, as per the earlier announcement of the chief minister in the Assembly. The honorarium of `50 per month, which had been stopped after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission in 2005, would be revived with the enhanced amount.Stating that there was no power shortage in the Union territory, Thiagrajan said that 425 MW was the usage in Puducherry. However the UT would receive additional power of 67 MW from Kudankulam and 15 MW from Neyveli following expansion.`140 crore yet to be paid to departmentReplying to a question, the minister said that `140 crore had been pending as dues from power tariffs. Some of the cases were pending in Court, while some were from government departments. Another `35 crore was due from a factory at Yanam that had been charged with power theft.