States powerplay with boilers short-circuits capacity addition

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New Delhi, May 8: Even as heavy industries secretary Satyanarayana Dash on Thursday called for the implementation of the amended Indian Boilers Act 2007 at the earliest, a senior power ministry official told FE that the notification of the new law is being held up due to vehement opposition from some states, especially West Bengal.

Speaking at a seminar, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CCI) on boilers and pressure vessels in the Capital, Dash said, “There would be no solution to the power sector problems unless you solve the administrative problems (like inspector raj over boilers) that are creating roadblocks in the whole process.”

Referring to the delay in the notification of the law, Dash said that he will urge the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to ensure that ‘all relevant notifications and orders are issued at the earliest so that the reconstituted Central Boiler Board comes into force at the earliest.’ He said this was necessary for boilers and manufacturers to get the benefit of third-party inspections as well as fix the periodicity of inspections as per manufacturers’ prescriptions.

Currently, state government appointed inspectors hold a monopoly on inspecting boiler users as well as manufacturers. Moreover, inspections are an annual exercise during which period plants are mandated to shut down operations, irrespective of the manufacturers’ recommended frequency for inspecting the boilers in question. The Parliament amended the law in November 2007 to abolish inspectors’ monopoly and allow international third party inspection agencies for boilers.

Dash was responding to Congress MP and industrialist Navin Jindal who had questioned the hold-up in the notification of the amended law and asked for the inspector raj to be abolished as soon as possible. However, a senior power ministry official said some state governments have been opposing the law right since 1994 when it was originally introduced in the Rajya Sabha.

“Some states are opposing it even now, the loudest opponent being West Bengal,” the official said, trying to rationalise UPA government’s predicament in notifying the new law, given its outside supporters, the Left parties are ruling in the state.