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Project only on paper, but Kerala driver draws Rs 89000 a month!

  • Kerala State Electricity Board mooted the Athirappally power project in 1979
  • Public protest forced the project to be put on hold. 
  • An office was opened at the proposed project site in 1998.
  • The project is most likely to be shelves as the environmental clearance expires on July 18
KSEB driver draws over 89000 a month

It seems the proposed Athirappilly hydel power project is eating into the funds of cash-starved Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). The Board is doling out a minimum of ₹14 lakh a month to maintain an office near the proposed 163-MW Athirappilly Hydel project site.
 

The executive engineer is drawing a salary of ₹1.52 lakh while the driver takes home ₹89, 339 per month, just to come and sit in an office at a proposed project site. 
 

The office was opened on the banks of Kannankuzhi pond, in 1998, and is being maintained just to demonstrate the determination of authorities to go ahead with the project. For the past 20 years, KSEB is paying salary to 12 persons, from executive engineer to the driver.
 

"It is intriguing that the loss-making company, which is pleading for a power tariff hike on the grounds of poor finances, is paying an enormous amount towards salaries of employees merely to take care of an office," N S Alexander, who obtained the details through a Right to Information query said. 
 

Alexander, a former deputy drugs controller said the project is most likely to be shelved as the validity of environmental clearance expires on July 18. Even if KSEB had to perform some functions, they could have done it from Poringalkuthu, which is just three km from the dam site, Deccan Chronicle reports. 
 

The only function of the office at proposed site is to chaperone visit of VIPs. Closing the office might hurt the pride of KSEB, Latha Anantha of Chalakkudy Puzha Samrakshana Samithi said. 
 

The dam of 311 m length and 23 m height was proposed 6.7 km upstream picturesque Athirapilly waterfalls, one of the major tourist attractions in Kerala. 
 

KSEB mooted the project idea in 1979 and moved the proposal in 1982. Though, by 1989, the Board successfully got clearance from various agencies it had to step back in the wake of public protests. However, in 1998, the project got clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). 
 

Meanwhile, the report of Western Ghats, Ecology Experts Panel, led by Madhav Gadgil declared Athirapally belt an ecologically sensitive zone and banned quarrying, mining and thermal power plants in the area. However, Kasturirangan report gave conditional sanction to pursue power project and based on this KSEB got an extension for green clearance from MoEF till 2017.
 

Meanwhile, the tribal community in the project area moved Kerala High Court saying the project infringed their rights under Forest Rights Act, 2006. The petition is pending before High Court. 

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