The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) reconnected power supply to the office of the Deputy Director of Education (DDE) here on Friday morning following pressures and high-level intervention.
The board had disconnected power supply to the office on Thursday, citing non-payment of a bill of ₹17,068 in arrears as the reason. The KSEB superintendent here had spurned a request by DDE K.S. Kusumam for condoning the delay in the payment of bill arrears.
M.M. Mani, Minister for Power, ordered reconnection of power supply after a request by Minister for Education C. Ravindranath. The Minister had pointed out that power supply was essential as the DDE’s office was gearing up for the SSLC examinations beginning on March 10.
Employee organisations of the ruling party too intervened fearing that their rival organisations would exploit the “power faceoff” to tarnish the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. An employee organisation of the Opposition Congress had begun to collect funds to pay the power bill arrears of the DDE office.
KSEB officials reconnected the power supply before the office started functioning on Friday morning, and thus thwarted the move by the employees owing allegiance to the Congress.
Meanwhile, a section of employees alleged that the power disconnection was a vindictive move by a KSEB officer with allegiance to the Congress. They alleged that several other government offices had similar arrears to pay, but the KSEB had not taken any drastic action against them.
