The NERC serves as a quasi-judicial authority,and not only functions as a regulatory and monitoring body but also acts as a liaison between the consumers and the Department of Power, Nagaland. (Morung File Photo)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 2
The Nagaland State Government has issued a public advertisement inviting applications for the post of the chairperson, Nagaland Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). A routine procedure to fill a vacant public office, what was not revealed was that the NERC was practically out of action for the past two years following the retirement of the previous chairperson-cum-member.
An independent, quasi-judicial body in essence, the one-member NERC was established in 2008 by the State Government as mandated by the Electricity Act, 2003. The mandated functions of the Commission, besides regulating the generation and supply or purchase of electricity and specifying quality standards, is to advise the government on matters relating to the electricity industry within the state and also liaison with the consumers through holding of regular public hearings.
According to informed sources, the previous chairperson retired sometime in August 2019 and since then the NERC has remained without a working member.
One of the sources said, “Before the retirement of the previous chairman, the NERC had written to the government in February 2019 that the incumbent was due for retirement and that to take necessary action to appoint a new one.”
The rules state that the government has to start proceedings to appoint a successor as soon as the tenure of the predecessor ended.
Section 85 (2) of the Electricity Act, 2003 states, “The State Government shall, within one month from the date of occurrence of any vacancy by reason of death, resignation or removal of the Chairperson or a Member and six months before the superannuation or end of tenure of the Chairperson or Member, make a reference to the Selection Committee for filling up of the vacancy.” The term of office of the chairperson is five years.
While the government was mum on the two-year delay, the source said that the extended delay has defeated the very purpose of the NERC. According to him, it has affected the functioning of the Department of Power, Nagaland in relation to programme implementation and consumer affairs, besides tariff regulation. “The very purpose of having a regulatory commission in the state is to regulate tariff and to address other grievances related to the power sector. For example, prepaid metering is on, but till now, the department (of Power) has not implemented a mechanism for enabling consumers to recharge online.”
He added that it should be the Commission, which should be pulling up the Department for lapses and gaps in service delivery.
Tariff revision is among the responsibilities the NERC is shouldered with. However, he added that tariff has not been revised for two consecutive years because the government failed to appoint a new chairperson-cum-member. Moreover, he said, “No chairperson implies there was no public hearing for two years.”
In defence of the Department, he said, “This is not the fault of the Department of Power. The lapse is on the part of the government. They (government) may be having reasons, we do not know. But why till today no tariff revision has been done?”
