JNNURM- IS THERE DANGER AHEAD FOR MYSORE?

In the euphoria over hundreds of crores of rupees flowing into Mysore for JNNURM works, most people have forgotten that Mysore City Corporation has to foot a hefty bill, with no indications till now as to how MCC will meet this challenge. JNNURM is clearly no free lunch.

The City Development Plan prepared by MCC as a prerequisite for obtaining JNNURM projects shows how much MCC will spend over 25 years 2007-2031 towards developing infrastructure in Mysore. During 2007-12, the average yearly expenditure is Rs. 328 crores of which MCC provides Rs.53 crores and the rest comes from central and state grants. The average yearly expenditure for the remaining period 20013-2031 is Rs. 547 crores and MCC has to pay this amount all by itself.

It is not at all clear how MCC can raise Rs. 53 crores per year during 2007-12 and Rs. 547 crores per year during 2013-2031 towards JNNURM works. As it is, MCC has been defaulting in repaying the ADB loan taken a few years ago for the same purpose of infrastructure improvement. As a result of non-payment, the Rs. 130 crore loan has now ballooned to more than Rs. 300 crores. Strangely, MCC remains silent about this fast-growing liability and makes no allocation in its budget towards clearing this loan.

From a cursory glance at MCC's budgets for the last few years, it is clear that MCC can not generate the revenues needed to meet its Rs. 53 crore annual liability for the JNNURM works for the period 2007-12, let alone the Rs. 547 crore annual liability for the years 2013-31. It will be forced to take loans from outside sources for this money. But if MCC has not been able to repay its old (ADB) loan, who will come forward to give a fresh loan? In case some bank comes forward, will it not impose stiff conditions? Will it not ask for a collateral? Will our city be pawned off to pay JNNURM works? Does anyone have answers to these questions?

Another cause for deep worry for all Mysoreans is that these huge expenditures may not produce any lasting benefit for Mysore. In the ADB works, despite the many checks and balances instituted to insure that money was spent properly and the quality of work was high, the works were to a large extent shoddy providing very little benefit. In JNNURM works, these checks and balances are not evident and so the prognosis on the quality of work is not hopeful. Caving in of the road near Ballal Circle and questions raised about the new bus stand are some early indications.

Maj.Gen. (Retd.) S.G.Vombatkere, President, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

MGP CONDUCTS CONSUMER AWARENESS PROGRAMMES

Mysore Grahakara Parishat conducted two lecture-demonstrations on food adulteration detection at Kushalnagar on 16-9-09. The first programme was for the general public of Kushalnagar and the second one was for the members of eight Rotary clubs of Zone 6. C.V. Nagaraj (formerly Senior Chemist, Regional Agmark Laboratory, Bangalore) demonstrated simple tests to detect adulteration in various food items. He also spoke about the harmful effects of various types of adulteration and on the laws that exist in India against food adulteration. V.Mahesh, a hydrogeologist with more than 36 years experience, spoke about various aspects of ground water

C.V. Nagaraj and Meghashree, a high school student, gave the food adulteration detection lecture-demo at CONTECH-09 held on 20-22, September at NIE (See Photo in Attachment).

V. Mahesh, Mysore Grahakara Parishat

College Fined For Delaying Hall Ticket

B.Vaikunth Shenoy, member, Mysore Gahakara Parishat

In an order passed on 11-9-09, Mysore District Consumer Forum has fined the Principal of Mahajana P.U. College and the President of Mahajana Education Society for delaying the hall ticket to a student and causing him to miss the examination.

 

Preetham was a First P.U. student who did not pass the regular P.U.examination and appeared for the supplementary examination held in May 2009. He paid the exam fees but was not immediately given the hall ticket. The principal asked him to come on the morning of the examination, but the hall ticket was still not given. The student called his father and uncle but by the time, they argued with the principal and got the hall ticket issued, the exam was over. As a result of this delay, Preetham lost a year in his education.

Preetham filed a complaint before the Consumer Forum alleging deficiency is service by the principal and the president of MES. In their statements to the Forum, the principal and the president blamed each other. After going through the evidence and the statements of the parties, the Forum concluded that there was ample proof that there was a deficiency in service by both the defendants. It ordered the principal to pay Rs. 25,000 and the president, MES to pay Rs. 5,000 to the complainant for causing the loss of a year. The defendants were also ordered to pay Rs. 10,000 for the mental agony caused and Rs.2,000 towards the cost of proceedings.

MGP Opposes Electricity Rate Hike

Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation which supplies electricity to Mysore and its surroundings has now filed an application before Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission for yet another increase in tariff. The public can submit their objections to the rate hike and the last date for submitting objections is September 14.

MGP has filed its objections and they include the following:

1. The Tariff Filing must be rejected because various laws, rules and regulations have been contravened.

a. The financial statements which includes balance sheet, the schedules and comments/observation are not audited as required by KERC (Tariff) Regulations 2000 Annexe II.

b. According to Sec. 61(g) of the Electricity Act, 2003 and Sec. 27(2)(c) of the Karnataka Electricity Reforms Act, 1999, the tariff should progressively reflect the cost of supply of electricity. Even though KERC has given CESC opportunities year after year, CESC has not yet scientifically determined the cost of supplying power to various categories of consumers and still resorts to average cost of supply. This should not be accepted. There is no connection between the values of fixed charges and energy charges proposed by CESC for various categories of consumers and the actual cost of supplying electricity. Further, for the last several years, all the electricity supply companies in Karnataka have been asking for the same tariff rates for various categories of customers and they have done it again this year. It is not possible that the cost of supplying power to various categories of consumers to be identical for all electricity supply companies; thus it is clear that these numbers are false. This violation of the letter and spirit of the Electricity Act and the Karnataka Electricity Reforms Act should not be tolerated.

c. Sec. 55(1) of the IE Act mandates that power should be supplied to only those installations which have accurate metering. CESC has not ensured accurate metering for all installations.

d. Sections 27(1)(d), (e) and (f) of the Karnataka Electricity Reforms Act stipulate that the Commission shall be guided by the factors like 'economical use of the resources', 'optimum investments', 'the interests of the consumers' and 'commercial principles'. CESC has not complied fully with these requirements.

2. In view of the extremely poor quality of power supplied over the last year and the unacceptably long unannounced power cuts inflicted by CESC on its customers, the Commission should use the powers given by Sec. 57 of the Electricity Act, set stringent standards of power quality, and penalize CESC heavily for violations of these standards.

C.V.Nagaraj, member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat
 

District Forum Holds Bank Responsible for Security Lapses

Holding that State Bank of India had not taken suitable security measures at its Automated Teller Machines, Mysore District Consumer Forum has ordered SBI to return the amount which was withdrawn unauthorizedly from the account of one of its customers (order passed on 27-8-09 in Case No. CC/09/207).

Srinivas Gudi is a marine engineer working for Shell International Shipping and Trading Company. On 3rd and 4th December of 2008, Rs. 99,000 was withdrawn from ATMs in Malaysia using his SBI debit card and his code number. But Gudi was on duty aboard a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at that time. Gudi's wife noticed this large debit from his account and called him immediately. Using satellite phone, he called his bank and informed them of this unauthorized withdrawal from his account.

When Gudi finished his tour of duty and came back to Mysore, he again contacted the bank to get his money back, but the bank insisted that the withdrawals were done using his debit card and his code number. Gudi's protestations that he had his card with him on the ship all the time and that he had not disclosed the code number even to his family members bore no fruit. So he decided to file a complaint before the Mysore District Consumer Forum.

During the hearings, M.Y.Kumar, the advocate for the complainant produced documents from the internet which showed that hackers routinely hack into computers of card companies, obtain credit card numbers and code numbers and use this information to steal millions of dollars from ATM machines all over the world. In the background of this widely available information, the advocate argued that SBI had not taken suitable precautionary measures, especially, implementing the smart chip technology which is being used in more than 65 countries to prevent such fraudulent withdrawals from the accounts of unwary customers.

The Forum agreed with these contentions and ordered SBI to reimburse the amount fraudulently withdrawn from Gudi's account. It also awarded Rs. 10,000 towards mental agony suffered by Gudi and Rs. 16,000 for other expenses incurred by Gudi.

P.M. Bhat, Member, Mysore Grahakara Parishat