Workers up the ante against Anpara C sale

Lanco Kondapalli may have been given the go-ahead by the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet for implementation of the 2x500 Mw Anpara C power project but it still needs to get the consent of power employees.

The employees continue to remain against the handing over of the project to the private sector.

They said the moment digging started, there would be immediate strike in the Anpara complex, followed by a similar mass action in the rest of the state by power employees.

Shailendra Dubey, leader of the Uttar Pradesh power engineers' association, said the power workers would resist all attempts to hand over the land for Anpara C to Lanco.

Throughout the tenure of the previous government, they remained against the private sector implementing the project. The efforts of the private parties to inspect the site were boycotted by the employees but Mulayam Singh still went ahead and gave the mandate to Lanco Kondapalli after an open tender.

Dubey also said the public sector was more efficient then the private sector. He said the agreement with public sector undertaking BHEL for Paricccha 2x250 was signed in August 2006 and its first unit would come on stream in October 2009 and the second in January 2010 while the agreement with Lanco for the 2x500 Mw unit was signed in September 2006 and its first unit was estimated to come on stream in March 2011 and the second in September 2011.

Lanco had asked the government to provide land for building an office and 16 quarters for the company but this was not covered under the agreement, Dubey said. The plan was to swallow the whole of the Anpara project, he added.

The power situation in Uttar Pradesh is deteriorating. Its distribution arm, UPPCL, is buying power worth Rs 35 crore per day "" Rs 10 crore from Uttar Pradesh plants and Rs 25 crore from the central sector, causing a deficit of Rs 5,500 crore in 2006-07.

It will still run a deficit of 2,000 Mw after importing 3,500 Mw and its own generation of about 2,700 Mw.