Source:
Economic
Survey,
2002-03
Press
Release
The
Bharatiya
Janata
Party
coined
a
new
slogan
with
an
acronym
–
“BSP”
--
`Bijli,
Sadak,
Pani’
for
the
recently
concluded
assembly
elections.
Subsequently,
the
NDA
government
is
claiming
that
in
major
areas
of
infrastructure,
their
performance
has
surpassed
the
totality
of
achievements
of
the
first
fifty
years
of
independence.
But,
our
study
from
the
Communist
Party
of
India
(Marxist)
on
`Bijli’
--
the
power
sector,
reveals
a
contrary
picture.
This
study
is
the
third
in
the
series,
"Lies,
damned
lies
and
statistics"
to
nail
down
the
falsehood
advanced
in
the
`Shining
India'
campaign.
Is
India
Really
Shining?
Lies,
Damned
Lies
and
Statistics
Infrastructure:
Power
Sector
v
The
advertisements
published
in
all
the
national
dailies
by
the
Ministry
of
Non-Conventional
Energy
Sources
and
the
Ministry
of
Power
(dates
18th
and
25th
February
2004
respectively)
contain
more
rosy
projections
about
the
future
than
actual
achievements
already
made.
For
instance
it
is
claimed
that
electrification
of
more
than
20,000
more
villages
would
be
accomplished
by
2007,
additional
10,000
MW
electricity
from
non-conventional
energy
sources
would
be
generated
by
2012
and
in
the
next
2
years
100
lakhs
households
have
been
targeted
for
giving
new
electric
connections.
v
A
hard
look
at
the
data
for
power
generation
and
rural
electrification
show
a
completely
different
trend
in
reality.
In
terms
of
addition
to
the
power
generation
capacity,
the
record
of
the
Vajpayee
Government
has
been
disastrous.
The
Central
and
State
governments
together
added
only
about
13,500
MW
during
the
9th
Plan
period
(1997
–
2002)
as
against
21,000
MW
added
during
the
7th
Plan.
An
additional
5,643
MW
added
by
the
private
sector
during
the
9th
plan
was
generated
largely
through
plants
which
used
naptha
and
diesel
as
inputs,
thus
producing
power
at
very
high
costs
imposing
unbearable
burdens
on
the
State
Electricity
Boards
as
well
as
the
consumers.
v
Figures
from
the
Economic
Survey
show
that
the
trend
rates
of
growth
in
total
power
generation
in
the
country
as
well
as
generation
of
hydel
and
thermal
power
between
1997-98
and
2001-02
have
been
declining
steadily.
This
exposes
the
hollowness
of
all
the
claims
related
to
enhanced
power
generation.
|
|
|
Source:
Economic
Survey,
2002-03 |
v
Rural
electrification
has
also
slowed
down
considerably
under
this
regime.
During
the
9th
Plan
period
only
11,200
villages
were
electrified
as
against
1,20,000
during
the
6th
Plan
and
1,00,000
during
the
7th
Plan.
The
Vajpayee
government
has
also
been
promoting
(under
the
guise
of
a
technology
mission)
a
decentralised
power
generating
system
for
rural
areas.
This
would
imply
that
villages
would
be
denied
access
to
cheaper
and
better
quality
grid
power
and
have
to
rely
on
standalone
systems,
which
would
generate
power
at
much
higher
cost
and
of
poor
reliability.
v
Privatisation
of
generation,
transmission
and
distribution
of
power
has
been
a
cornerstone
of
the
Vajpayee
government’s
power
sector
policy.
The
Vajpayee
government
had
encouraged
multinationals
like
the
Enron
to
set
up
high
cost
units,
which
sold
power
at
a
price
which
was
found
to
be
3
to
4
times
costlier
than
the
price
charged
by
the
Maharashtra
State
Electricity
Board
(MSEB),
resulting
in
losses
for
the
MSEB
for
the
first
time
in
its
history.
After
the
MSEB
and
the
Maharashtra
Government
scrapped
the
contract
with
the
Enron,
the
Vajpayee
government
put
pressure
on
the
state
government
to
settle
its
‘dues’
with
Enron.
Even
after
the
collapse
of
the
Enron,
the
central
government
did
not
initiate
any
action,
despite
fully
knowing
that
Indian
financial
institutions
like
the
IDBI,
the
IFCI
and
the
SBI
had
either
given
loans
or
guaranteed
Enron’s
loans
to
the
tune
of
2
billion
dollars.
The
spectacle
of
Enron’s
first
stage
lying
idle
today
and
the
second
stage
aborted
mid-way
speaks
volumes
of
the
government’s
disastrous
power
policy.
v
The
privatisation
of
power
distribution
in
Orissa
by
the
BJD
government
led
to
a
hike
in
the
price
of
electricity
by
2
to
3
times
for
the
consumers
without
any
improvement
in
power
supply.
After
the
Kanungo
committee
termed
the
privatisation
move
as
a
total
failure
and
one
of
the
distribution
companies
(discoms)
AES,
quit
the
scene,
the
Orissa
Government
had
to
step
in
and
take
over
its
operations.
The
record
of
the
other
case
of
privatisation
is
equally
bad.
The
Congress
government
in
Delhi
privatised
Delhi
Vidyut
Board
(DVB)
and
handed
over
its
assets
to
the
Tatas
and
Reliance.
In
the
first
year
of
their
operations,
the
subsidy
provided
by
the
government
to
these
discoms
amounted
to
Rs.2,600
crores,
which
was
more
than
twice
the
highest
loss
ever
suffered
by
the
state
owned
DVB.
Privatisation
of
power
generation
and
distribution
has
become
a
tool
of
subsidising
the
multi-national
companies
like
the
Enron
and
domestic
monopolies
like
the
Reliance
and
Tata,
by
hiking
power
tariffs
for
the
common
people.
