Cesc Braces For Yet Another Writ Over Surcharge

A public interest litigation (PIL) will soon be filed in the Supreme court challenging the West Bengal government's award of fuel surcharge arrears collection to the CESC Ltd.

The RPG power utility, however, has no direct information about the move. It is already collecting arrears and has further been permitted to collect more back payments at the rate of 10 paise a unit for 1997-98.

Another PIL was filed at the Calcutta High Court some months back. It is not clear why a fresh litigation more or less on the same issue is being filed at the Supreme Court. The new application, sources said, has the backing of a section of Congress legislators in the West Bengal assembly. The Congress MLAs had not only repeatedly raised the issue at the state assembly, but also leaked confidential documents from the state power department.

Some of the leaked documents gave the impression that notes were exchanged between the chief minister, Jyoti Basu, and power minister, S K Sen on the contentious fuel surcharge issue. The documents even included hand-written comments by the minister blasting CESC.

Sources said that similar documents are likely to be placed before the apex court. More incriminating notes from the department's files are also likely to be revealed.

However, the leaking of the alleged exchange of notes between Basu and Sen surprised the chief minister's secretariat. Senior officials at the secretariat denied that the power minister had ever sent those leaked notes to the chief minister. The notes, they claim, are confined in the power department's files.

The source of leak was a matter of much speculation as the power department was vertically divided on the fuel surcharge issue. The power minister assured the assembly that he would do all he can to rectify any possible wrongs in the calculation of fuel surcharge. Not only did he fail to reduce the amount awarded to the CESC, but had to actually allow a further raise by 10 paise.

A section of Congress legislators, who are backing the PIL at the Supreme court, did not deny that they are getting support from inside the power department for their feud over the surcharge.

The PIL is coming at a time when CESC is expecting revision of not only the basic power tariff, but also an alteration in the rates for fuel surcharge for the current year. The state secretariat is worried over the continuous leaks of documents. It is also unclear why the power minister has made notes on the files that were never sent to the chief minister.

Relations between Sen and his senior bureaucrats are far from harmonious and further deterioration has taken place with the state government decision to allow CESC to collect surcharge arrears.

NTPC chairman Rajendra Singh who came to see the power minister last week, was surprised that the secretary for power was not invited in the critical talks over clearing up WBSEB's dues to NTPC. Singh talked to the secretary separately, but went back with the newly acquired knowledge about the state of affairs at the Bengal power department.