On assuming charge of the Power Department, the present Power Minister appeared ready to steer the Department in the right direction and redeem it from the morass it is in. But the sudden turnaround has left many wondering if the MDA Government has dug in its heels too deep into the smart meter contract to be able to pull out of it. No one is privy to the agreement signed between Satnam Global and the MeECL on the smart meter project but for some reason it seems that despite the lacunae pointed out from time to time by the media about the dangers of using Chinese made smart meters there is no attempt by the MeECL to back out of the deal. This despite clear directives from the Union Power Ministry.
The so-called enquiry into the MeECL scam that once hogged the limelight is now a forgotten saga. The Opposition which is now in tatters after the split in the Congress and the emergence of the Trinamool Congress has forgotten the MeECL.. The former is trying to find its feet and the latter is busy enrolling members. The murky affairs of the MeECL are no longer sexy as they will not win votes. The ordinary citizenry are exhausted just complaining about the terrible choices they make after each election cycle. Unfortunately, the citizenry never organizes itself enough to bring the change they want to see. Years and years of exhaustion has made people weary, cynical and disgusted. Exhaustion tends to induce pessimism. But this hardly works in a democracy. The catchword is organize, organize, organize.
The MeECL has, over the years bred a category of vested interests starting with those holding charge of the Power Department. Every step is about deal making. This is not the first government that has milked from the Corporation. Others before it have acted in a similar vein. At least three decades ago there were attempts to privatise the Corporation because even then it had become unviable, with transmission and distribution losses running wild. These losses continue and with no consequences on those that allow such leakages to happen.
The new CMD is a no-nonsense engineer with a management background to boot. He is expected to do what needs to be done to turn the Corporation around but he would have to be given a free hand to do that. Is that even possible? A government-controlled corporation is an extension of the government and politics will always determine how it is run. That is until the MeECL hits a major iceberg and runs aground.