Transit Loss or theft of Coal?
The Anti-Corruption Branch of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Lucknow, on Saturday unearthed a racket that siphoned off coal consignments from goods trains and later sold it into the coal markets of Varanasi and Chandauli.
According to the CBI, a former BJP minister Markandey Chand was running the coal mafia. The CBI team also raided the offices of Markandey's son Chandra Prakash and grandson Narendra Chand and seized fake lorry receipts and two firearms. Narendra's sons Vishnu and Niranjan were arrested from the office.
Three goods trains carry coal consignments from National Coal Field Ltd (NCL) at Sonbhadra, a subsidiary of the Coal India Limited, to power plants at places like Obra and Kota every day.
In a joint operation with the Varanasi police and Railways Vigilance team, the CBI caught the labourers offloading the coal from a train in Sonbhadra in the wee hours of Saturday. The guard and the driver made the train halt at the earmarked place for over 25 minutes without any reason.
The agency seized coal worth over Rs 7 lakh and seized six fully loaded trucks and trolleys and seven half-loaded trucks from the spot. The CBI DIG, Pankaj Srivastava, said: "A former minister of Uttar Pradesh during the BJP government, Markandey Chand, and his relatives constitute a coal mafia syndicate and have been running the racket for several years. The racket has caused the NCL a loss of over hundreds of crores of rupees so far."
"Markandey's son Chandra Prakash and his greatgrandsons, Niranjan and Vishnu Pratap, have been arrested and the driver and the guard of the train have been taken into custody," the DIG said.
A CBI team was on trail of the gang after it received the tip-off that the gang, in connivance with the guards and the drivers, offloaded coal from the trains, when they stopped between the NCL outlet and railway stations of Anpara and Ambedkar Nagar.
The gang engaged up to 400 labourers to unload the coal in the illegal dumping yards close to the rail tracks. After the trains moved ahead, the stolen consignment was loaded in trucks and trolleys and taken to the Varanasi coal market, where one truck-full of coal was sold between Rs 65,000-80,000. The Chand family used to produce fake receipts of the coal consignments to get it sold legally in the market, said the CBI. The agency said the gang used to load nearly 20 such trucks from the trains every night.
The DIG said the racket was never detected so far because the quantity of the coal was not recorded when the trains used to leave the NCL outlet. Some NCL staff probably also connived with the gang as no suspicion was ever raised over the coal quantity when the trains were unloaded at the power plants.
Markandey and his nephew Abhishek had earlier been jailed for the murder of former BJP MP and coal tycoon Laxmi Narayan Mani Tripathi. He was shot dead at his Lucknow residence on June 19, 2005 and the police had arrested Chands the next day from Gorakhpur. Chandra Prakash was the main accused in the case. A rivalry over coal business was alleged to be the motive for the murder.
Express News Service
PSEB is also suffered losses on account of Transit loss every year appox 2-3 % amounting to Rs 60-70 crore .
BOARD RECOMMENDS THREE COMPANIES FOR UNBUNDLING
Punjab state electricity Board (PSEB) has recommended to set up three companies in order to bifurcate it in accordance with Electricity Act 2003. PSEB has sent its proposal to Punjab government to implement it.
PSEB sources said on Wednesday that PSEB has advised Punjab government to three companies comprising generation, transmission and distribution companies.
The dead line for unbundling of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has already been extended upto June 15,2009.
The center government had asked all the states to disband power boards and set up independent companies for handling generation and distribution of electricity as per the provisions of Electricity Act. 2003.
Giving last opportunity the Centre has asked Punjab to prepare road map for bifurcation of the board; hence PESB has sent the proposal to the Punjab government in view of it.
Punjab Government had received concurrence of Government of India allowing PSEB to continue as a vertically integrated utility till 15th June, 2009. This is the ninth extension granted to state government. The last extension had expired in November 2008.
The PSEB, the biggest PSU in Punjab has a strength of about one lakh employees. The employees associations had threatened to launch agitation if PSEB was unbundled.
The PSEB Engineers Association has suggested that it is possible to retain the board without disturbing the present set up of the PSEB to meet the legal requirements of Electricity Act 2003. This can be done by creating a new company to trade power as per provisions of the Act 2003.There are seven states in the country where the State Electricity Boards still exist due to pressure build by board employees.
The former chairman of PSEB Y S Ratra has advocated unbundling in the month of January and lost his job. He called for implementing the recommendations of the Electricity Act 2003.
The Punjab government, earlier this year, had reappointed Ernest and Young, as consultant to submit report on the restructuring of the PSEB. Earlier also this consultant had suggested formation of separate companies for generation, transmission and distribution companies besides a holding company in 2004.
Several unions and association however have opposed the move. According to PSEB engineers body the restructuring of PSEB is a high risk, low return and irreversible process and all the stake holders must be involved in the process. Government would have to take the responsibility of conversion of state Government loans in to equity and taking over the liabilities related to employee's retirement benefits. Failure of reform process in different states is attributed mainly to political interferences in day to day working of the state power utilities.
AUTOMATIC BILL PAYMENT MACHINES LOCATIONS
PUNJAB STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD ANNOUNCES THE SUCESSFUL INSTALLATION & OPERATION OF AUTOMATIC BILL PAYMENT MACHINES AT FOLLOWING 34 LOCATIONS IN VARIOUS TOWNS.It is welcome step by Pseb ,now consumer can pay electricity bill at any time .More over Board can also can reduce collection cost but success of this schemes depends upon training of the staff to whom duty to maintain these machines has been given and there should be proper guidlines regarding whom to met when there is problem in the Machine and Bill Processing or collection.
Amritsar | Jalandhar | Ludhiana |
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Patiala | Bathinda | Mohali |
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Hoshiarpur | Mansa | Gobindgarh |
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Phagwara | Malout | Khanna |
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Kapurthala | Pathankot | Sirhind |
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- These are open 24hours and 7 days including Sunday and Holidays.
- Help available from7AM to 11PM to guide to make payment.
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For further details please contact 0172-277327
PSEB at the service of its consumers.
PSEB at the service of its consumers.
NTPC to set 4000 MW coal-fired power Plant
India's largest power producer NTPC, formerly National Thermal Power Corp, Sunday signed an agreement with the Chhattisgarh government for setting up a 4,000 MW coal-fired power plant on an investment of Rs.20,000 crore.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was present during signing of the pact, said the plant would be set up in the coal-rich Raigarh district.
The project, which would need 30,000 hectares of land, will have five 800 MW units.
'Fifty percent of the power produced will go to the state government as per the condition laid by Chief Minister Raman Singh,' Shinde said.
NTPC signed two other pacts for setting up an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) campus and an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in the state.
I would like to mention here that PSEB is spending 50 % of production cost for freight on coal.where as NTPC setting up its most of the Power plants at Pit head( near to coal sources) and saving huge amount of production cost.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was present during signing of the pact, said the plant would be set up in the coal-rich Raigarh district.
The project, which would need 30,000 hectares of land, will have five 800 MW units.
'Fifty percent of the power produced will go to the state government as per the condition laid by Chief Minister Raman Singh,' Shinde said.
NTPC signed two other pacts for setting up an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) campus and an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in the state.
I would like to mention here that PSEB is spending 50 % of production cost for freight on coal.where as NTPC setting up its most of the Power plants at Pit head( near to coal sources) and saving huge amount of production cost.
No shortage of electricity in Punjab
PATIALA: Owing to showers at certain places in Punjab, the gap between demand and supply of power has not been seen by the PSEB on Friday. According to official sources the availability of power is 1585LUs and demand was at 1589LUs.
The hydel projects have been contributing 160LUs whereas 612LUs coming from from own Thermal Plants. BBMB has giving 160LUs and 13LUs from NRSE and 702LUs Central Sector Share and Banking.
Demand is Due to no gap in demand and supply PSEB has allowed LS consumers feeding from Category-2, 3 & 4 feeders, to use load during Peak Load hours upto 75 % of Peak Load Exemption allowed instead of 50 %.
The exemption shall be reviewed on day to day basis, sources added.
The hydel projects have been contributing 160LUs whereas 612LUs coming from from own Thermal Plants. BBMB has giving 160LUs and 13LUs from NRSE and 702LUs Central Sector Share and Banking.
Demand is Due to no gap in demand and supply PSEB has allowed LS consumers feeding from Category-2, 3 & 4 feeders, to use load during Peak Load hours upto 75 % of Peak Load Exemption allowed instead of 50 %.
The exemption shall be reviewed on day to day basis, sources added.
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