Ranchi: The Jharkhand State Electricity Regulatory Commission that is not functioning (JSERC), with both the chairman and member on the roll, is now left without a roof above his head.
Virendra Kumar, the Joint Secretary of the Excise Ministry and Prohibition, in his letter to the Energy Secretary on July 27, has shown that the office space located on the second floor of Block B from Utpad Bhawan at the Canke Police line has now been allocated to the state commercial tax department.
The office space was used by JSERC until then.
JSERC has been allocated five rooms on the second floor of the building in 2019 to accommodate his office.
“Because it was asked that the JSERC office was transferred to another location,” the letter was added.
Kumar, in another letter, wrote to the Secretary of the Country Commercial Tax Department that the office space, used by JSERC, will now be submitted to the Commercial Tax Department.
All maintenance costs, electricity bills and others must be borne by the Commercial Tax Department, the letter states.
Established in 2002, JSERC began to function from rented office space in Bhawan’s sainik in Ranchi.
In 2019, he shifted to Utpad Bhawan at New Police Lines, Kanke Road, Ranchi, where he was allocated five rooms on the second floor of the building.
JSERC is the state electricity regulatory authority and is responsible for determining the rates for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, regulating the transmission of intra-state power and power purchases, issuing licenses to companies that want to produce, transmit and promote the manufacture of renewable sources, among others.
“There is no alternative arrangement made for JSERC, which is currently without chairman.
There are no members in JSERC.
We cannot shift up to several alternative office spaces given to us” Rajendra Prasad Nayak, Officer Minister-Cum-Law Jserc told Tii.
Nayak said that JSERC had written to the State Energy Department who was looking for instructions on this issue.
Excise officials did not respond when contacted.
JSERC has been chairman for the past year after the current, Arbind Prasad, resigned on 12 June2020.
Since then, the Commission has functioned with only two members – Rabindra Narayan Singh and Pravas Kumar Singh.
However, Rabindra Narayan Singh retired on January 9, 2021 while Pravas Kumar Singh, retirement on February 19 this year, leaving JSERC completely reduced.