Jaipur, Mar 12: Despite the consensus reached at the Chief Ministers' Conference two years back to `depoliticise power sector reforms and speed up their implementation', the process has been tardy in Rajasthan, says the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. Even after signing an MoU with the Centre as a measure of joint commitment to undertake the reforms in a time-bound manner, the process failed to achieve the required momentum, says the latest report of CAG. Under the reform programme, the state government appointed MNC Arther Anderson as consultant in March 2001 for privatisation in power sector but the assignment could not be completed in the stipulated 18 months and was rescheduled to be completed by February this year. The work of metering at 11 KV feeders which should have been completed by September 2001 remained unfulfilled by 51.74 per cent.
Similarly, metering 100 per cent consumers latest by June 2002 could be achieved by only 14.47 per cent in regard to flat rate agricultural consumers and only 87.97 defective meters were replaced by may last year.
Commenting on the government's assertion that the MoU was only a model draft and the delays were due to impractical and unattainable deadlines, the CAG said there was a "need to take adequate care to tailor such agreement to meet specific needs and requirements of the state." The report also said the state government failed to disburse subsidy to the required extent.
Bureau Report