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

Synopsis of State Reports (Vol.-IV)
Study on `Impact of Restructuring of SEBs’
electrification, etc., in the past, is not evident to that degree now. In the unified
Utility, what was being done by a team headed by a Chief Engineer is now
being done by a Superintending Engineer or may be by an even below ranked
official. The problems of the power companies with almost 65 lakh consumers
are basically field level ones, which require field level solutions.
6.8 GENERAL FINDINGS AND LESSONS LEARNT
(a) Reforms can be sustainable only with political commitment, not merely at
the top level but right down the line. Unless the political level is duly
sensitised, reforms cannot take deep roots. So long as reforms appear to
them to be a direct threat to their continuance in power, they would not
allow the reforms to stabilise. Through a sustained media blitz, they will
have to be convinced that subsidies are no substitutes for financially
strong Utilities and that financially viable Utilities can serve the farmers
better than the bankrupt ones. Hence, it is in the larger interest of the
farmers themselves to strengthen the Utilities;
(b) Without proper orientation, agricultural consumers may tend to oppose
power sector reforms. Intensive orientation programmes should be
organised for public representatives. Without this basic groundwork, the
reform process will not proceed at the desired pace;
(c) The RSEB was a giant organisation and its top management including the
Chairman used to be very effective. The Chairman, very often of the rank
of the Chief Secretary, by sheer seniority was able to resist some of the
populist measures. He could secure much support from the District
administration. Relatively junior officers were posted as MDs in the
restructured entities; and
(d) Rajasthan had long back taken the lead in the rationalisation of
agricultural tariff. An out-of-turn scheme called Nursery Scheme was
introduced for agricultural connections. Earlier, the average waiting time
for obtaining service connections used to be around 13 years but instant
connections were provided under the Nursery Scheme. The initial
charges were roughly 10 times higher and the applicable tariff was
100 per cent higher. Yet the scheme was a roaring success and
thousands of connections were released under this category. The
scheme exploded the myth that agricultural tariff is a holy cow. The
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