E-Paper
RGGVY: ERC seeks reports
THE STATE?S electricity regulator has asked the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) to submit the Rail India Technological and Economic Services? (RITES?) report which has found faults with work under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). The regulator?s move comes after some newspapers carried the report on RITES? findings.
THE STATE?S electricity regulator has asked the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) to submit the Rail India Technological and Economic Services? (RITES?) report which has found faults with work under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). The regulator?s move comes after some newspapers carried the report on RITES? findings. ?I have been directed to call attention to newspapers reports that independent investigation by UPPCL officers and a separate investigation by RITES commissioned by UPPCL have both shown that quality of works and materials under the RGGVY are below par and to request that a copy of the RITES? report may please be made available to the Commission,? said UPERC secretary Sangeeta Verma in her letter to the power body on December 1. The commission said on an earlier occasion it had asked for details with regard to the rural electrification scheme being implemented in the State. ?But barring the Meerut discom none sent details,? the letter states. The letter points out that as per para 7.2 of the Rural Electrification Policy notified by the Ministry of Power on August 26, assistance from public funds to village electrification projects would be a one-time dispensation and any replacement of assets in future should be possible without the requirement of any capital subsidy. ?It is evident, therefore, that utmost caution needs not to impose burden on consumers. Poor quality of products, poor installation, inadequate standards, will not only increase the commercial risks of distribution licencees but can also result in failure of rural energy projects thereby resulting in avoidable set back to the Rural Electrification Programme,? the UPERC observed.
