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Politicians, bureaucrats ruined UPSEB: SC panel

A committee appointed by Supreme Court to go into the ills plaguing the giant UP State Electricity Board has accused politicians and bureaucrats for the decline of the organisation, which was the nation's second largest public undertaking after the Indian Railways.

The board has now been broken up into three smaller independent corporate entities, an exercise that saw the 87,000 engineers and employees going on strike.

The Supreme Court panel's report has come heavily against the unabated "political and bureaucratic interference" in the working of what was meant to be an autonomous body.

The committee, headed by former bureaucrat P K Kaul and including select experts, including former UP police chief Prakash Singh, former energy secretary E A S Sarma, and prominent technocrats V K Pandit, R N Srivastava and G C Srivastava, submitted its report about six months ago.

The report says there was rampant malpractice in transfers and postings, which were, more often than not, done on extraneous considerations and in total violation of the established policy.

It says merit was invariably compromised and the "transfer industry" was allowed to thrive.

The malady of transfers was illustrated through a table that lists out the number of transfers made at the behest of the energy minister. It was also noted that this was done in violation of an order from the Allahabad high court.

"The government and the board have been making a mockery of their own transfer policy and guidelines," the report states, adding, "the maximum number of officers transferred were having tenures of less than one or two years," clearly indicating that the transfer industry prospered in the board.

Successive governments have often promised to end the "transfer industry" without taking any action later.

The report cites umpteen cases where Energy Minister Naresh Agarwal issued written directives to the UPSEB chairman regarding transfers down to the level of assistant engineer.

In one such note, the minister also directed the chairman not to entertain requests from any other member of the council of ministers unless it was routed through him. The report quotes the minister as having written, "Even any information sought by anyone other than chief minister must be routed through me."

Agarwal's monopolisation of transfers was visible in yet another official note, wherein the chairman was told to ignore correspondence from the minister of state for energy. This note led to a lot of bad blood between Agarwal and the then minister of state.

Even appointments at the highest levels were made solely on political considerations, of which the report takes serious cognisance.

"In the absence of procedures for selection, capable and suitable persons were not considered for appointment as chairman of the board. Consequently, persons not enjoying good reputation for honesty, high conduct, administrative acumen, etc got appointed to the Board simply for political reasons... Once appointed... they surrendered complete autonomy of the board to the political powers and the government," the report stated.

The report quotes yet another letter of the minister in which he has asked the chairman to take his prior approval in case of transfers of assistant engineers as well. The report goes on to reproduce a letter sent by Minister of State for Energy Rang Nath Misra to the then chief minister Kalyan Singh in which, while expressing his chagrin at the state of affairs in the UPSEB, he remarks, "transfers are made in the morning and cancelled in the evening."

Misra writes that "inspite of repeated instructions, no action is taken against officers conniving in large-scale theft of electricity," adding that "the officers found involved in theft of electricity are posted to plum posts."

He hits out at the "commission" taken for transfers and to "fudge" of meters by heavy consumers with the connivance of board officials. As if to add insult to injury, then chairman of UPSEB G P Singh is alleged to have prepared a wishy-washy Action Taken Report on the minister of state's charges. Even the high-powered committee's report terms this ATR as an "eye-wash".

The report cites a number of cases where upright officers were made to leave key positions because they dared to check corruption in the board.

Even the chairman is quoted as having admitted to political interference in the following words: "In a democratic set up, cognisance has to be given to public representatives and, therefore, the recommendations of the hon'ble ministers, state ministers, MPs, MLAs and other VIPs are also taken into consideration."

The report goes on to take note of what is termed as the "nexus between ministers, politicians, bureaucrats and influential consumers, industrialists and suppliers.

"The report concludes, "many have been witness to this once great organisation being gradually but steadily been dislodged from its position of glory once money became a central focus for politicians to satisfy their own objectives and priorities just to remain in office."

It further adds, "It is difficult to believe that the theft of electricity on a massive scale can go on in the absence of a highly-networked nexus between political leaders, the organisation itself and, by design, the consumer."

All these facts had been brought to light in successive reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India too, but successive governments have chosen to conveniently ignore such observations.

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