Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RVUN) chairman and managing director RK Sharma, who was on extension for straight three years, has been denied any further extension. This has put an end to close to his 40 years long career.
Devendra Shringi, director technical, has been given additional charge of chairman and managing director (CMD) RVUN till the appointment of full time CMD.
The tenures of managing directors of Jaipur discom – RN Kumawat, Ajmer discom – NS Nirwan, Jodhpur discom- Pramod Tank and MM Ranwa, who is managing director of Rajasthan Power Development Corporation, are going to end next week. The government is unlikely to give extension to any of these.
The state has been reeling under power crisis due to shortage of coal supply. The generation company had been under attack by opposition (at that time BJP) for not contracting steady coal supply as 85% generation comes from thermal.
Exit of RK Sharma
The exit of RK Sharma has been on expected lines after chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma expressed his anger over the working of RVUN in the assembly. He alleged that due to slackness of management, power plants of RVUN were working on 53% capacity whereas those owned by private power companies were working at 75-76%.
“I just can't understand why there is a huge gap of more than 20% on production capacity between state owned plants and private plants,” he raised this issue.
He also observed that he coal supplied in state-owned power plants had stone and dirt mixing which was adversely affecting efficiency of power generation.
“I refuse to believe that this was not in the knowledge of management. We need to fix these glitches,” he had announced in the assembly recently while speaking on Governor's speech.
The countdown for RK Sharma had begun then. After the end of his one year extended tenure, he was sent home.
“RK Sharma is a talented and efficient technocrat. But his exit was expected as RK Sharma was considered close to Ashok Gehlot. Now with change in guard, a new person of CM's choice will take over,” said a senior official of RVUN.
The total installed capacity of state owned power plants is around 10,000 MW with 85% based on thermal.
Alok Mathur is a law graduate. Journalism is his first love which he now pursues in the latter half of his career. Controversies and crime are the right triggers for him.
