LDF Govt planning to privatise KSEB: Rawther

Kottayam, Feb 22 (UNI) Kerala Electricity Employees Confederation (INTUC) General Secretary M S Rawther today charged the LDF Government with planning to implement the 1998 agenda of Lavalin to privatise the electricity sector.

At a news conference here, Mr Rawther said the Electricity Minister's statement that the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) would be divided into companies was part of the move to implement the agenda.

The board was trying to create an impression that it was in loss by reducing the revenue and exaggerating the expenditure.

The intention was to raise the electricity charges in the guise of loss and to hand it over to the private sector.

The board's profit in 2006 was Rs 194 crore. The board's statement Rs 280 crore would be the current year's loss and Rs 755 crore the next year could not be justified, he claimed.

In protest against the move to implement the Lavalin agenda, 'which was detrimental to the consumers, employees and the board,' the electricity employees would go on strike on April 23.

Anti-privatisation conventions were being staged in all districts. A Secretariat march would be staged on March 27, he said.

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