Kerala - Kochi   

Call to retain KSEB in public sector

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Kerala Electricity Officers' Federation has called for retaining the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in public sector. The extension given to the KSEB is about to end on December 9, after which it will have to be converted to companies unless another extension is given under Section 172 A of Central Power Act.

This would lead to privatisation of the power sector. The State Government should put pressure on the Union Government to prevent this from happening, said S. Babukutty, president; Syed Mohammed, organising secretary; and K. Somarajan, former general secretary, of the federation.

The experience from States where electricity boards were converted to private companies was not encouraging, they said. The federation called for cross subsidy to check hikes in power tariffs when the board was converted to companies.

It accused the board of wasting money by continuing litigation on the gratuity issue. Even though the High Court and Supreme Court ruled that Central Gratuity Act was applicable to KSEB, the latter was resisting from giving full gratuity amount of Rs.3.5 lakh to employees.

Around 6,000 cases were filed in 14 district labour courts and all pronounced judgements among these cases were against the board's stand. The federation suggested disbursing the gratuity amount in instalments without interest. An amicable settlement should be reached in consultation with unions, the leaders said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Capturing the magic of night on stamps
Vallarpadam rail link: land acquisition process on
AIR programme on coir industry
Call to retain KSEB in public sector
5,000 take part in children's rally
Krishna Iyer turns 92 today
The pain of writing without an audience
Of merger and gaffes
Around the City
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu