Lure Of The Lines

There are certain minimum eligibility criteria that KPTCL has set for recruitment of GVPs: They should be a resident of the panchayat, aged 18-38; trained in an iti or passed SSLC/PUC; and provide 15 days revenue billing as bank guarantee. There is an MoU signed between the GVP and the company. "With this one project, we have addressed several vital issues like power reforms, energy audit, rural employment, women's empowerment, decentralisation of power and, definitely, high profits for electricity companies," gushes Meena. Karnataka is the only state in India to have implemented this successfully. "The genesis of the idea was in Orissa, but what failed there worked here. Now Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat are keen to replicate this model. We are helping them," he adds.

The huge success of the GVP system has inspired Karnataka so much so that it is now gearing up for a bold experiment in its rural power sector. The state will introduce retail sale of electricity in villages for the first time in the country. Rural youth, who were trained to function as GVPs, would now be roped in for retail sale of power. They would be rechristened as micro-feeder franchisees—meaning they will act like a mini power-supplying firm with authorisation to undertake retail sale of power to consumers. KPTCL would get monthly readings of the meters installed at the 11-kv feeders (source of bulk supply to the entire village) and meters fitted to the transformers (source of supply to small colonies) to know the amount of power sold. The KPTCL officials would find out if the retail franchisees have collected more revenue than collected earlier by the companies. The additional revenue collected by the retail franchisee would be shared between the power supplying company and the franchisee. Hence, the retailers have to perform well, points out Meena. "A pilot project has been running in the Hubli area for one year. There are already 50 people operating as power retailers there. We will very soon extend the concept to other parts of the state," he says. A clear case of power to the people.