The Hindu : New Delhi News : Transco officials may be shifted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Transco officials may be shifted

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. A shake up in the top echelons of the Delhi Transco Limited, the power transmission company of the Delhi Government, is on the cards. The company has been in the news for non-performance and its inability to manage the power supply situation in the Capital during the past few months.

The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has been unhappy at Transco's functioning and the manner in which certain high officials have been leaking out information.

It is learnt that the Chief Secretary, S. Regunathan, who also holds the charge of Principal Secretary (Power), is already looking into the happenings in Transco and inquiring into the role of certain officials in creating hurdles in the smooth functioning of the organisation.

The performance of Transco has come under scrutiny by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) also.

The new Managing Director of Transco, Arun Goyal, was personally handpicked by the Chief Minister in view of his technically strong background. He was also to identify and root out those whose performance has not been up to the mark.

The Chief Minister was unhappy with the performance of former Managing Director of Transco, K.M. Sahani. Mr. Sahani was even wrested of the charge of Principal Secretary (Power).

It is understood that some officials of Transco and Genco, the generation company of Delhi Government, have blamed certain high officials in Transco for bringing a bad name to the Government. It is learnt that the Government has been informed that the recent leaks about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and adverse publicity with regard to Transco's performance was an insider's job.

The DERC was also pained to note the under-performance of Transco. It has pointed out in its order that against the estimate of Rs. 426 crores of capital investments sought for 2003-04; the Commission approved the investment of Rs. 341 crores. However, the actual investment during 2003-04 was as low as Rs. 85 crores. For the year 2004-05, Transco has originally estimated the capital investment of Rs. 328 crores, which has been revised to Rs. 254 crores and further pruned to Rs. 135 crores in the subsequent submission. During discussions, Transco submitted that the investment plan has been revised based on the sanctioned Plan Assistance from the Government for 2004-05.

This, the Commission observed, gave the impression that due care was not taken while preparing the investment plan and transmission system requirements. At the same time, it is not clear whether the capital investment plans are prepared on need basis or resource availability basis.

In the absence of certain details, the Commission was left with no option but to approve the Capital investment of Rs. 135 crores.

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