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Admitting that the centre's denial to the sought extension by the state government for unbundling of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) might evoke constitutional crisis between centre and state, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that issue would be taken up in the forthcoming state cabinet meeting for any final decision. Punjab government is not against the unbundling of the PSEB, but as the Board is under heavy huge financial debt and it was mandatory to bring it out of such a debt, before constitution of any separate institution for the transmission of power.

"As for as implementation of Electricity Act 2003 recommending unbundling of PSEB is concerned, state has some discretionary powers to take the extension on unbundling on its own and Punjab Government could use the same after taking nod from the state cabinet," Badal told reporters.

It may be pertinent to mention here that extension (ten times) attained by the state government for unbundling of PSEB was expired on November 30, 2008 and after that centre did not respond to the request by the state government for seeking more extension.

The State government has written a letter to the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, alleging that by not extending extension to the state government on the issue of unbundling of PSEB, centre was violating the spirit of Electricity Act 2003, sources said claiming that as per clause 172 of Electricity Act 2003 state and union government would jointly take any decision on transmission utility and license and centre could not deny extension to the state governments.


Source - Punjab newsline