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MSEB chief Bansal may tender resignation

Maharashtra State Electricity Board chairman, Vinay Bansal, may proceed on long leave or even resign following allegations of corruption in meter purchases by state Energy Minister Padmasinh Patil in Bombay on Monday.

"It is a fact that the board was short of meters and the repeat orders to the earlier parties have saved the board about Rs 90 million," official sources said on Monday.

However, Bansal was unavailable for comment.

Sources say the meter purchase was in line with state regulatory commission's directive to reduce MSEB's annual losses with help of 100 per cent metering as per the master metering plan.

"MSEB has been buying about 400,000 meters annually in last few years, while Tamil Nadu buys 1-1.5 million. The meters purchase has therefore to be stepped up to meet the plan submitted to MERC," they said.

On July 15, in a meeting with technical members MSEB chairman had considered measures to augment and expedite meter supplies, sources informed.

The meeting also took note that pending orders fell far short of the Master plan's requirement and hence it was unanimously decided to obtain 615,000 meters from nine parties on whom orders were placed after public tender in February 2000, they said.

"Thus the parties which had earlier supplied meters against the February tender at a price of Rs 1,000-Rs 1200 were asked to supply at about Rs 860 per meter," sources said, adding that out of the required 615,000 meters, the parties accepted supply of 450,000 meters.

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