Power Sector News

January 2006 - March 2006 Index

Power Sector News- Kerala

23RD STATE CONFERENCE OF KSEB WORKERS ASSOCIATION

23rd State conference of KSEB workers association had held at BTR Memorial, Trivandrum from 25 to 28th February,06. 454 delegates from 59 divisional committees spread across the state attended the delegate session, out of which 19 were women. A well attended seminar had also been conducted on 27th February’06 on the occasion of the conference. The subject of the seminar was “Kerala Development in the Globalisation Background”. Eminent economist and JNU Faculty member Shri C.P. Chandrasekhar presented the keynote address. EEFI President and Association’s President Com. E. Balanandan inaugurated the seminar. Dr. K.N. Harilal and Dr. A.D. Damodaran were participated in the discussions. Com K.N. Ravindranath, CITU State President was the moderator. Many leaders of class and mass organisations and general public also were participated in the a seminar.

The conference adopted some important resolutions such as
1. Intensification of nation-wide campaign and struggle to review Electricity Act, 2003
2. Campaign and struggle against UPA government’s economic policies
3. Against Govt. of India’s decision to allow FDI in retail sector, privatisation of Delhi & Bombay airports
4. Against Govt. of India’s foreign policy in in Iran issue etc.

The conference unanimously elected 150 member central committee including 30 member office bearers.
President : Com. E. Balanandan, General Secretary : Com. O. Pushpan, Asst. Secretary: Com. R. Anil Kumar, Treasurer : Com. P. Hariharan

The elected office bearers including EEFI office bearers from Kerala viz Com. K.O. Habeeb, K. Sukesan & V. Mohan Das.

The conference concluded massive rally and public meeting. About 6500 workers from all over the state participated in the rally. The public meeting was inaugurated by Com. P.K. Gurudasan, CITU State General Secretary. The other speakers were Com. K.O. Habeeb and O. Pushpan.

Successful 13th state conference of K.S.E.B.Officer’s Association
- K.R.Unnithan

The 13th state conference of K.S.E.B.Officer’s Association was held very successfully at the Capital city of Trivandrum on 28th and 29th of January2006.
The first days seminar on “Kerala’s Power Development – Perspective and Programme” wooed rampant attention of intelligentsia and social activists of the capital and the near by districts. This seminar was inaugurated by the former Electricity Minister Pinaray Vijayan and Key note was delivered by Dr.M.R.Srinivasan, Former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission who is well known as ‘the father of Indian atomic power’. He was closely associated with the study conducted on ‘the experience of power sector reforms in India for the last one and a half decade’, as ace of the expert committee formed under the aegis of EEFI. E.Balanandan ,President ,EEFI moderated the seminar. Dr.A.D.Damodaran (Former Director, CSIR) Dr.A.Achuthan (Sastra Sahithya Parishath), M.K.Parameswaran Nair (Former Member,KSEB), K.O.Habeeb (Secretary, CITU) were others who presented their learned opinions on the subject- a base paper on which was prepared and circulated by the Association in the seminar. In the inaugural address Pinaray Vijayan denounced the policy of GOI to privatize the power sector. Dr.Srinivasan briefed the study report of expert committee based on his own experience and cautioned that LNG will not be a cheaper option of fuel for power generation in future. The count of the gathering in the A.K.G auditorium where the seminar was organized exceeded 1200.
The delegate session commenced on the second day with the flag hoisting ceremony by the president of KSEBOA at 8.30A.M. The session was inaugurated by the opposition leader of the Kerala Assembly, V.S.Achuthanundan, after the welcome speech by the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram City, who was the chairman of the Reception Committee. In his inaugural address, he deprecated the government’s policy to unbundle and privatize the Electricity Board. He also urged the government to settle the demand of employees to revise the pay. Leaders of the fraternal organizations, i.e. KSEB Workers Association (CITU), KSE Workers Federation (AITUC), and KSE Officers Federation (AIFEE) greeted the delegate session of the conference. K.R. Unnithan, Secretary, EEFI greeted the conference on behalf of EEFI. Twenty-four delegates from different district committees participated in the discussion on the Presidential address, General Secretary’s Report and accounts discussion. The conference adopted the Resolutions on : Opposing the pro- American foreign policy of the UPA government, On the perspective and programme of Kerala’s power development, reviewing the International, National and states experience for the last one and a half decade, To intensify the fight against the implementation of Electricity act –2003, To take necessary action for revision of salaries, To undo the hitches in promotions, Against the curtailment of interest of provident fund, Against the new pension reform schemes, Against the anti-labor amendments in Trade union act and I.D.Act, Against the Hong- cong decisions of WTO, On strengthening of the organization, Against the suspected planned murder of a Board employee involved in anti- power theft activity at Palghat.
The conference elected K.Asokan, Dy.Chief Engineer as President, B.Pradeep, Asst.Executive Engineer as General Secretary , V.Madhavan, Asst.Accounts Officer as Treasurer and Twenty four other office bearers. K.R.Unnithan, Secretary, EEFI and K.Pavithran, Working Committee member of EEFI were also elected as special invitees in the Office Bearers meetings, as usual. 442 delegates including 76 woman officers elected from the 14 district committees attended the delegate session. This conference laid a new record in the participation of women.
A street drama was performed at all important places in Trivandrum district, proclaiming the intention and goal of 13th state conference, and captured the attention of people at large on the deleterious neo-liberal policies pursued by the state and central government in power sector, which was the theme of the street drama. This was organized by the reception committee. All the participants were members of KSEB officers Association.
On the second day, a grand press meeting was also arranged on behalf of EEFI in which DR.M.R.Srinivasan, E.Balanandan, K.O.Habeeb and K.R.Unnithan jointly addressed the press. Subject of press conference was the interim report of the expert committee to study the experience of power sector reforms in India.54 correspondents including senior personalities in media attended the press conference which lasted for about two hours. This has virtually transformed as an education programme on the subject to the media persons. So the media covered the subject in a big way.
RAJASTHAN
The RSEB was unbundled on 19th July,2000. On 1st April’01 power tariffs were substantially hiked. Since then under forced measures(political compulsions) the tariffs could not be hiked. In November 2004 RERC made a tariff hike order to be effective from 1st January 2005 in which Agriculture tariff was raised from 90 paisa to 110 paisa per unit. The state government deferred the implementation of tariff hike till 31st march at the face of continued farmers protests. However, it was made effective w.e.f. 1st April’05. The peasants on 1st September’05 under the banner of Akhil Bharateeya Kisan Sabha occupied and ceased the grounds between the State secretariat and State Assembly at Jaipur in hundreds thousands for eight days and marched through the main streets of Jaipur city two times reminding state government to withdraw the tariff hike on agriculture pump sets consumers. The whole life in the city’s heart was crippled for eight days.
The government’s every attempt to disrupt the unity of the peasants failed and ultimately it has to eat humble pie by withdrawing the tariff hike.


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