Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
- Damania to reveal another scam today to target Ajit Pawar
By Dheeraj Fartode
Launching a frontal attack against Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Ajit Pawar, State convenor of Aam Admi Party (AAP) Anjali Damania on Sunday reiteratred her allegation of Rs 22,000 crore scam in Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MahaGenco) and also promised to reveal a mega-scam in power sector on Monday at Mumbai.
Speaking to reporters, Damania claimed that this would be one of the biggest ever scam in power sector which took place between 2009 to 2011 involving Ajit Pawar. Referring to recent complaint filed by Mahagenco with Sadar Police against six operators requesting to register offence against them for criminal breach of trust, forgery, cheating and fraud, Damania claimed that the complaint has endorsed their claim of mind-boggling corruption in power sector.
Refuting claim of Mahacenco that coal was unavailable for power sector, Damania said, Mahagenco had not lifted the coal despite of ample availability. There was 41.97 lakh MT coal available which was not lifted, she said. She blamed washery companies with selling good quality coal at another place and supplying sub-standard coal to Mahagenco only to decrease power generation capacity in the state. Ajit Pawar’s vested interest was to purchase power from private companies. Mahagenco’s power generation capacity was not raised after spending Rs 10,000 crore for capacity expansion and Rs 9,000 crore over maintenance. Plant load factor (PLF) of Mahagenco had declined to 60 per cent and MERC had also served notices to Mahagenco, Damania stated.
Mahagenco had already refuted the allegations of delibrate underproduction, not lifting the coal and high cost of generating power claimed that it was victim of receiving inferior quality coal from coal utilities. The poor quality of coal received, the unfair practices in sampling, the failure to supply the contracted quantity as per Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) has affected performance, Mahagenco had stated while blaming coal utilities citing recent orders passed by Competition Commission of India (CCI) as well as by Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. Contrary to the general perception about high tariff of Mahagenco plants, the overall Tariff
of MSPGCL as per latest tariff Order is only Rs 3.06 / unit, the power utility had claimed. Against this backdrop, it will be interesting to see the new allegation which AAP is going to level against Mahagenco and Pawar on Monday at Mumbai.
Damania also demanded action against Congress MLA Sunil Kedar, blaming him for Rs 152 crore Gilt scam in Nagpur District co-operative Bank. Raising demands of immediate transfers of accounts of teachers to Nationalised Bank, Damania said that teachers are not getting their salaries, which is ultimately hampering education sector of district.
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