Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 12 — The political war over Kerala's worsening power crisis has taken a sharper turn with former KSEB Chairman B. Ashok launching an unusually strong attack on former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the cancellation of the long-term power purchase agreements.
IAS officer Ashok dismissed Vijayan's criticism of the cancellation as an attempt to blame officials for decisions taken during the previous LDF regime.
He said the official records relating to the agreements were available and could establish the facts.
There was no lapse on the part of KSEB officials in the matter, he asserted.
The exchange, however, carries a backstory that goes beyond the present dispute over power procurement.
Ashok, a 1998-batch IAS officer, had a particularly contentious relationship with the previous government.
He was suspended by the Vijayan government in April this year following an interview in which he was alleged to have criticised the functioning of the then LDF government.
The charges against him included speaking to the media without permission and allegedly tarnishing the image of the government.
He remained under suspension for about one-and-a-half months before the newly elected V.D. Satheesan government reinstated him in June.
Against this backdrop, Ashok's latest broadside against Vijayan assumes an added political significance.
His sarcastic reference to memory lapses and his allegation that the former Chief Minister was trying to escape responsibility by blaming officials have given a personal edge to what is otherwise a technical dispute over power contracts.
Vijayan, in a detailed Facebook post, had blamed the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government for the present power crisis and rejected the argument that the cancellation of the 465 MW long-term agreement under the previous LDF government was responsible for the shortage.
The present Satheesan government has blamed this cancellation for the present night blackout, which has left people fuming, as during the decade-long Vijayan rule, power outages were rare.
He said the original agreement, signed in 2015 during the previous UDF government, had legal deficiencies as it was entered into without prior approval from the regulatory commission or the government.
The LDF government, he said, had subsequently fought to retain the agreement and even approached the Supreme Court.
Vijayan also claimed that the LDF government had managed higher peak demand of around 6,100 MW without resorting to power cuts by purchasing electricity at higher rates and entering into power-swapping arrangements with other states.
Ashok, however, argued that the present crisis reflected a failure of long-term planning, particularly the absence of adequate storage systems for renewable energy generated during the day for use at night.
Vijayan has alleged that the UDF government is deliberately creating a power shortage to push the KSEB into a crisis and eventually facilitate privatisation of the electricity sector.
Ashok, meanwhile, has maintained that such allegations cannot conceal the actual administrative and technical issues facing the state's power sector.
With power shortages and the possibility of further restrictions already causing public concern, the Ashok-Vijayan confrontation is likely to keep the controversy alive, bringing back into focus not only the disputed power contracts but also the political and administrative battles that surrounded them.