E-Paper
Recovery notice to industrial house cost KESCo MD his post
EFFORTS MADE by KESCo managing director Sudhir Garg to realise pending electricity dues from a top industrial house cost him his chair and, in turn, gave a severe jolt to the power company.
EFFORTS MADE by KESCo managing director Sudhir Garg to realise pending electricity dues from a top industrial house cost him his chair and, in turn, gave a severe jolt to the power company.
The industrial house proved too mighty for the MD and led to his transfer.
The confrontation between the MD and the industrial house started when, in the larger interest of KESCo, he refused to extend any favour to the company and directed it to pay the pending power dues of Rs 3.85 crore by March 29 or power supply to the plant would be snapped by March 31.
But the powers that be in the State capital came to its rescue and thwarted the MD’s efforts to snap the power supply to its plant and even transferred him to the Irrigation department.
This sudden transfer Sudhir garg has come as a severe jolt to the power company. During his nearly two-year tenure as KESCo MD. Garg successfully solved the financial crisis of the power company to a large extent. Before Garg joined, the power company was incurring an annual loss of Rs 100 crore. But due to sustained efforts put in by Garg, the annual loss of the company came down to Rs 70 crore. Besides, in the last month of the fiscal 2005-06, the company surpassed all records of the past ten years and was able to realise a revenue of Rs 70 crore.
The much hyped Rs 93 crore APDRP project also picked up pace in the city during his tenure. After the initiative taken by Garg, the long pending upgradation of Naubasta, Krishna Nagar and other 33 Kv substations was also completed last month.
Frequent transfers of KESCo MDs will not only derail the revival of company but also hamper successful implementation of the APDRP project. A large section of KESCo officials are also not in favour of frequent transfers of MDs.
A senior official said: “A new MD will at least require six months to one year to understand working of the company. After that only he will be able to take any steps to streamline the working of the company.”
