PDP, BJP at loggerheads over PDC chairmanship
Dy CM sleeping over 8 reminders from MoS Power, Law Minister, Power Secretary
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz & Samaan Lateef
__________
SRINAGAR, Oct 23: While sleeping over as many as eight reminders from Law Minister Basharat Bukhari, Minister of State for Power Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Principal Secretary Power Sandeep Nayak, Dy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh has failed to constitute new Board of Directors (BOD) for Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation as Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has not accepted the proposal of his appointment as Chairman of the State’s most important corporation. A tug-of-war over the prestigious portfolio has been underway between PDP and BJP ever since the coalition government assumed office in March 2015.
As per a post-1996 tradition, Chief Minister has been functioning as Chairman PDC even if he does not hold the portfolio of Power. Chief Secretary, administrative Secretaries of Power, Finance, Planning besides Managing Director of PDC usually happen to be the Directors on Board, presided over by Chairman. With this development, PDC has been headless and its decision making body, BOD, has been non-existent after the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tendered his resignation in January this year.
In absence of Chairman and BOD, PDC has failed to hold Annual General Meeting and other key deliberations since June 2014. Under the Companies Act, if the AGM is not held and annual accounts finalised before September 30, the company is liable to one time penalty of Rs one lakh besides fine of Rs 5,000 each day.
Latest on September 14, Law Minister Basharat Bukhari has made it clear to the Deputy CM, who is holding portfolio of Minister of Power, to ensure constitution of BOD within September 2015. However, Dy CM did not pay any attention to it. Highly placed bureaucratic sources revealed to STATE TIMES that prior to Bukhari, MoS Power Mohammad Ashraf Mir had also sent a memo of urgency to the Power Minister which failed to evoke any response.
Significantly, even Principal Secretary Power Sandeep Nayak sent as many as five reminders to Nirmal Singh, making it clear that in absence of the BOD and Chairman, PDC had become handicapped in taking critical decisions. All the eight official communication, according to sources, are gathering dust in Dy CM’s chamber.
With no Chairman and BOD, PDC has failed to take policy decisions on new projects, energy generation, and operation and maintenance of its projects. While the execution of a critical bridge on Baglihar-2 has fallen in limbo, PDC has failed to allot and execute 93 mw New Ganderbal Hydroelectric power project.
Contrary to the past practice, Nirmal Singh has staked the claim for the hot seat in PDC. However, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s office has not acquiesced into the Power Minister’s proposal.
“Several times PDC initiated the process to constitute BOD but it has met a negative response from the Power Minister’s office,” a PDC official said on condition of anonymity. “Power Minister wants to be the Chairman while as Chief Minister’s office is averse to ceding the post to the BJP,” he said.
“The detailed project report for New Ganderbal hydropower project was submitted to the Power Minister’s office but due to absence of BOD, the approval is pending,” a source disclosed to STATE TIMES.
Similarly, construction work on 850 mw Rattle Hydro Electric Power Project (RHEPP) in Kishtwar has not started in past 14 months after the Hyderabad based company, GVK Development Projects Private Limited, left the project incomplete. PDC has been unable to take a decision whether to construct the project of its own or hand it over to any other company.
GVK has refused to resume work citing recurring losses due to insecure atmosphere and continuous protests of local people seeking adequate compensation for land.
The decision to approve the Denmark-based company, Danish Hydraulic Institute, to quantify the losses suffered by the State on account of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan is also pending due to absence of the BoD. As per rough estimates, State Government has suffered Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore losses due to IWT. Omar Abdullah’s NC-Congress government had for the first time floated the idea to quantify the IWT losses in 2009.
As per rules, BOD is bound to meet once in a quarter every year. Government’s non-seriousness towards power development could be gauged from the fact that since June 2014, PDC’s BOD has not met even once. Officials insist that PDC has five power projects in pipeline and all are pending in absence of Chairman and BOD. Even the MD’s post was retained by Power Secretary Nayak on adhoc basis after the re-employed former bureaucrat Meraj Kakroo resigned in the beginning of the new government.
Even the Chenab Valley Power Projects have also been hit as two of its board members come from PDC.
To harness 20,000 MW hydropower potential in a sustained manner, the State government had set up PDC on February 16, 1995. It was incorporated to takeover, execute, complete, operate and maintain all power stations and power projects of the State. Presently it has 20 hydroelectric projects with installed capacity of 758.70mw located in various districts of Jammu & Kashmir including 450mw Baglihar Hydroelectric Project.
While as one of the Power Minister’s aides said that Dr Singh was busy in a function and he would call back later, MOS Power Ashraf Mir did not respond to the calls from STATE TIMES.
END
Dy CM sleeping over 8 reminders from MoS Power, Law Minister, Power Secretary
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz & Samaan Lateef
__________
SRINAGAR, Oct 23: While sleeping over as many as eight reminders from Law Minister Basharat Bukhari, Minister of State for Power Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Principal Secretary Power Sandeep Nayak, Dy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh has failed to constitute new Board of Directors (BOD) for Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation as Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has not accepted the proposal of his appointment as Chairman of the State’s most important corporation. A tug-of-war over the prestigious portfolio has been underway between PDP and BJP ever since the coalition government assumed office in March 2015.
As per a post-1996 tradition, Chief Minister has been functioning as Chairman PDC even if he does not hold the portfolio of Power. Chief Secretary, administrative Secretaries of Power, Finance, Planning besides Managing Director of PDC usually happen to be the Directors on Board, presided over by Chairman. With this development, PDC has been headless and its decision making body, BOD, has been non-existent after the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tendered his resignation in January this year.
In absence of Chairman and BOD, PDC has failed to hold Annual General Meeting and other key deliberations since June 2014. Under the Companies Act, if the AGM is not held and annual accounts finalised before September 30, the company is liable to one time penalty of Rs one lakh besides fine of Rs 5,000 each day.
Latest on September 14, Law Minister Basharat Bukhari has made it clear to the Deputy CM, who is holding portfolio of Minister of Power, to ensure constitution of BOD within September 2015. However, Dy CM did not pay any attention to it. Highly placed bureaucratic sources revealed to STATE TIMES that prior to Bukhari, MoS Power Mohammad Ashraf Mir had also sent a memo of urgency to the Power Minister which failed to evoke any response.
Significantly, even Principal Secretary Power Sandeep Nayak sent as many as five reminders to Nirmal Singh, making it clear that in absence of the BOD and Chairman, PDC had become handicapped in taking critical decisions. All the eight official communication, according to sources, are gathering dust in Dy CM’s chamber.
With no Chairman and BOD, PDC has failed to take policy decisions on new projects, energy generation, and operation and maintenance of its projects. While the execution of a critical bridge on Baglihar-2 has fallen in limbo, PDC has failed to allot and execute 93 mw New Ganderbal Hydroelectric power project.
Contrary to the past practice, Nirmal Singh has staked the claim for the hot seat in PDC. However, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s office has not acquiesced into the Power Minister’s proposal.
“Several times PDC initiated the process to constitute BOD but it has met a negative response from the Power Minister’s office,” a PDC official said on condition of anonymity. “Power Minister wants to be the Chairman while as Chief Minister’s office is averse to ceding the post to the BJP,” he said.
“The detailed project report for New Ganderbal hydropower project was submitted to the Power Minister’s office but due to absence of BOD, the approval is pending,” a source disclosed to STATE TIMES.
Similarly, construction work on 850 mw Rattle Hydro Electric Power Project (RHEPP) in Kishtwar has not started in past 14 months after the Hyderabad based company, GVK Development Projects Private Limited, left the project incomplete. PDC has been unable to take a decision whether to construct the project of its own or hand it over to any other company.
GVK has refused to resume work citing recurring losses due to insecure atmosphere and continuous protests of local people seeking adequate compensation for land.
The decision to approve the Denmark-based company, Danish Hydraulic Institute, to quantify the losses suffered by the State on account of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan is also pending due to absence of the BoD. As per rough estimates, State Government has suffered Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore losses due to IWT. Omar Abdullah’s NC-Congress government had for the first time floated the idea to quantify the IWT losses in 2009.
As per rules, BOD is bound to meet once in a quarter every year. Government’s non-seriousness towards power development could be gauged from the fact that since June 2014, PDC’s BOD has not met even once. Officials insist that PDC has five power projects in pipeline and all are pending in absence of Chairman and BOD. Even the MD’s post was retained by Power Secretary Nayak on adhoc basis after the re-employed former bureaucrat Meraj Kakroo resigned in the beginning of the new government.
Even the Chenab Valley Power Projects have also been hit as two of its board members come from PDC.
To harness 20,000 MW hydropower potential in a sustained manner, the State government had set up PDC on February 16, 1995. It was incorporated to takeover, execute, complete, operate and maintain all power stations and power projects of the State. Presently it has 20 hydroelectric projects with installed capacity of 758.70mw located in various districts of Jammu & Kashmir including 450mw Baglihar Hydroelectric Project.
While as one of the Power Minister’s aides said that Dr Singh was busy in a function and he would call back later, MOS Power Ashraf Mir did not respond to the calls from STATE TIMES.
END
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