Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

State Reports (Vol.-III)
Study on `Impact of Restructuring of SEBs’
the companies. The staff norms were established during the KEB days, and
based on the liberal standards existing under the Board regime. There is need to
have them revised as per commercial norms and O&M studies; perhaps by
engaging outside experts. Once this is done, the managements of the companies
must have the freedom to fill up the required number of staff, as their own
employees on respective cadres, which will strengthen the working of the
companies.
The restructured companies also must have powers to evolve their own
performance-linked wage structures, which are most suited to their
environments, subject to the overall policy guidance of the State Government.
The model could be patterned on the basis of the procedures followed by the
CPSUs.
(N) OUTSOURCING OF FUNCTIONS
A related issue is the advantages of outsourcing services and functions.
Already, BESCOM has resorted to outsourcing of its billing and collection in a
number of its sub-divisions, with apparent benefits. Apart from reducing the
cost to the companies, outsourcing will also help in better collection efficiency,
provided there is a competent data collection and monitoring system in
position.
DISCOMs must be encouraged to adopt the practice of outsourcing
increasingly, but subject to installing appropriate security and monitoring
controls.
(O) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN OPERATIONS
The need to secure a ‘buy-in’ of the public to the reform efforts in the power
sector through the communication strategy has already been discussed. This
needs to be supplemented with public participation in areas such as elimination
of thefts, 100 per cent metering, and such relevant areas. The project launched
in Maharashtra (Akshay Prakash Yojana) to involve the rural population in the
activities of the utility could be adopted as a model.
Karnataka has a large number of effective and successful Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) operating in different parts of the state. It might be
possible to involve them in mobilising public cooperation to improve the
commercial aspects of the working of the DISCOMs through concerted efforts.
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