Eight months after the Union power ministry ordered the ouster of Subrata Biswas from the post of Damodar Valley Corporation chairman following the Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC's) corruption charges against him, prime minister Manmohan Singh has given his approval.
The power ministry removed Biswas from the post of DVC chairman on November 27, last year after the CVC raised objections to his appointment through a letter dated October 20, 2009. Biswas was appointed chairman on October 14, 2009, ten months after Asim Barman retired from the post.
The Prime Minsiter's office on July 12 this year finally circulated a confidential note (PMO ID NO- 905/5/c/97/2009-pol-5) mentioning: "Prime Minister has approved the proposal of pre-mature repatriation of Shri Subrata Biswas, IAS.( KL: 85), Chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation to his parent cadre Kerala." (Fe has a copy of the note).
In fact, the Cabinet committee on appointments, headed by the Prime Minister himself, appointed Biswas as chairman without taking CVC clearance, which is mandatory for such ranks. The CVC wrote to the Union power ministry that there were three disciplinary proceedings against Biswas and that " it was not understood how the power ministry made such appointment without taking CVC clearance." Fe had reported this first on November 13, 2009.
Finally, in July this year, following the PMO's instructions, the power ministry has asked its chief vigilance officer (CVO) Devendra Singh to take additional charge of DVC replacing Biswas. This, according to a section of officials, is enough indication that the ministry will now dig into the irregularities that have been taking place in the statutory body.
In June, Manas Bhuian, the Congress leader of opposition in the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly, wrote to Biswas ( letter available with Fe) that there were irregularities going on in the tendering process for evacuation of ash and that two contractors " have been able to convince the DVC management to change QR (qualifying requirement)."
In fact, DVC has been floating a host of tenders since end of 2008 for adding 5,200 mw, of which 2,500 mw was supposed to have come up by March 2011 for supplying to the Commonwealth Games. But not a single megawatt has been added so far.
DVC was supposed to commission Chandrapura-7 (250 mw) and Chandrapura- 8 (250 mw) in September 2009 and March 2010 and units one and two (2x500 mw) of Mejia-2 in April and July, 2010.
But none of these units has come as yet though work orders for all these projects have been placed on time.
Officials said that there have been manipulation of all the tenders and at least 2000 work orders of various nature have been placed in the past two years on a single tender basis. Biswas prior to being appointed as the chairman was the secretary of DVC for five years.
The present chairman, Devendra Singh, when asked didn't want to comment on the irregularities.
However, a power ministry official admitted that all projects are behind schedule, including two units of Durgapur Steel Thermal Power Station (2x500 mw), one unit of Bokaro -A, units one and two (2x500 mw) of Koderma and units one and two (2x600 mw) of Raghunathpur. The power ministry will now push through these projects.
DVC, currently a 2,854 mw company, aimed at becoming a 10,000 mw company by 2012 and be the country's second largest power generator after NTPC.
But that's an impossible target now. Even banking on power from DVC for the Commonwealth Games has proved to be a bad bet, the ministry official said.
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