The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Move to ‘unbundle’ KSEB opposed

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Friday, Oct 30, 2009
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Move to ‘unbundle’ KSEB opposed

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Kerala Electricity Employees Confederation, affiliated to the INTUC, has urged the government to withdraw its decision to convert Kerala State Electricity Board into a company.

M. S. Rawthar, general secretary of the confederation, said here on Thursday that the Electricity Appellate Tribunal had recently given a verdict that the main objective of the Electricity Act 2003 does not seem to be elimination of State Electricity Board or their unbundling into separate entities for generation, transmission and trading.

He said that the tribunal has made it clear that governments have the option of continuing with the State Electricity Boards.

Delivering the inaugural address at the district convention of the Federation held here on Thursday, AITUC-affiliated Kerala Electricity Workers Federation (KEWF) State president A.N. Rajan said that the Central Electricity Appellate Authority in its order had said that there was no provision in the Electricity Act 2003 that made unbundling of State Electricity Boards (SEBs) mandatory.

He said that KEWF would organise vehicle campaigns to propagate how the unbundling of the KSEB would adversely affect the interests of people and workers. The rallies to be launched from Kasaragod, Wayanad, and Idukki districts on November 15 would end at Thiruvananthapuram on November 25.

KEWF district president K.K. Gireesh presided. Communist Party of India district secretary Mundakkayam Sadasivan, KEWF State vice-president S.H. Shanavas, and other spoke.

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