THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the controversy surrounding the proposed GNA power purchase initiative, the issue did not figure in Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. With the opposition questioning whether the government had lost its collective responsibility, Chief Minister V D Satheesan and Power Minister Sunny Joseph, who is also the KPCC president, maintained a studied silence.
None of the other ministers raised the issue either, apparently mindful of the need to avoid further embarrassment for a government that assumed office barely six months ago.
At the meeting, Sunny Joseph presented a KSEB-related proposal to enhance the compensation awarded to people affected by the laying of the 400 kV transmission line in Malabar. Sunny’s intervention initially raised expectations among his cabinet colleagues that he might also raise the contentious GNA issue. However, despite an elaborate discussion on the compensation proposal, neither Satheesan nor Sunny Joseph spoke about the power purchase initiative.
“Each one of us wants the matter to subside. Before the cabinet meeting, both the CM and the power minister did not speak. However, they behaved maturely,” a minister told TNIE.
The controversy has, meanwhile, triggered fresh divisions within the Congress. This is the first time that a leader holding the stature of KPCC president has publicly differed with the chief minister on a major policy issue.
Unlike his predecessor, Sunny Joseph, who is regarded as a gentleman politician, has largely avoided open confrontation with Satheesan, both when the latter was the leader of the opposition and now as CM.
The public disagreement over the GNA initiative, coming soon after UDF convener Adoor Prakash ridiculed the cabinet’s collective responsibility, has added to the political significance of the row.
The issue has also widened the gap between Sunny steering the Congress party and the CM leading the government. “The CM’s remark that he was not someone who would sign on the dotted line simply because he was asked to do so, and the KPCC president’s statement that he learnt about the proposed GNA power purchase only through the media, show the differences between them,” said a Congress leader.
Questions have also been raised over the chief secretary’s role, with allegations that he misled the chief minister and made the situation worse. Though GNA is only a power trading platform, the power minister’s office and the KSEB were allegedly kept in the dark about the sources from which the electricity was to be purchased.
While the CM has maintained that there was no power crisis, KSEB data, which is in TNIE’s possession, show that the state continued to purchase substantial quantities of electricity from outside. According to the KSEB, Keralam purchased 800 MW of electricity from outside on Monday and around 700 MW each on Tuesday and Wednesday.
There is also discontent among the IAS officers over the transfer of KSEB CMD M G Rajamanickam after he reportedly opposed the proposed GNA power purchase initiative.
“KSEB officials and the then CMD had met the chief minister and tried to convince him. Thereafter, the minister also met the CM and put on record his dissenting opinion against purchasing power through GNA in the file. However, at the November 4 press conference, the CM said he had decided to purchase power through GNA,” said a KSEB official.
Secretariat sources told TNIE, on condition of anonymity, that the government decided to backtrack from the proposal after the new KSEB CMD, N Prasanth, and Additional Chief Secretary in charge of Power, Puneet Kumar, reportedly cautioned the chief minister and the chief secretary about the consequences of signing the agreement.
“The government is reluctant to proceed with the agreement to purchase electricity for now, in an attempt to save face amid the controversy,” said a senior bureaucrat.
‘Purchase continues’
While the chief minister has maintained that there was no power crisis, KSEB data, which is in TNIE’s possession, show that the state continued to purchase substantial quantities of electricity from outside.
According to the Electricity Board, Keralam purchased 800 MW of electricity from outside on Monday and around 700 MW each on Tuesday and Wednesday