Governance of Assam Power Sector (Policy and Performance)

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The book is the outcome of an empirical study funded by ICSSR, New Delhi on the impact of the policy and institutional changes initiated in the power sector of Assam in the context of efficiency, equity and service delivery. The book has been prepared on the basis of extensive field survey with an objective of capturing the field reality with regard to the implementation of the policies made in post reform period. Apart from the secondary data, the experiences of implementers and the service recipients have been highlighted in a comparatives perspective through tables and diagrams. While many reports are based on mere statistical data, this book makes an effort to combine both by referring to the existing statistics and reports on the sector performance with the experiences of field visits, case studies, interviews, photographs and focused discussions with the officials and respondents. Household survey on service delivery has also been done extensively and actual operation of power plants, the challenges faced by them, various micro-privatization schemes particularly Franchisee systems etc, official's visit to field to monitor the service have been highlighted which will be useful for the policy makers in the sector.

DR BIKASH CHANDRA DASH (b.1975), Associate Professor in Political Science, Assam Central University Diphu Campus has been working on the issue of public policy and governance with reference to power sector since last two decades. He has published few books and many empirical research papers on various public policy and governance issues. Dr Dash has published articles on gender issues, ethnic movements and on North East politics. Dr Dash has successfully guided several doctoral scholars and delivered many lectures in national and International seminars. Dr Dash has Post Graduate teaching experience of 15 years till date.

Power Sector governance is a global phenomenon. Many research works exist contributing to the huge literature on the issue. In spite of having immense potential for power generation in the country, the per capita consumption of electricity and power availability status in India is one among the lowest in the world. Again, there are huge differences of power availability status among the states within the country. Whatever achievements have been made so far in the sector, are having wider differences among the Indian states depending on multiple factors specific to the state concerned. The North Eastern state of Assam is the state where per capita power consumption is the lowest in the country. Load shedding is commissioned for long hours because of power deficit. The estimated potential for power generation though promising, have not been converted into reality leading to power woes in the state. Therefore like many other Indian states, the state of Assam has executed reforms by restructuring its power sector and by constituting Independent Regulatory Commission. Measures have been taken to promote quality service to the consumers through the making of a good number of regulations mentioning the standards to be followed in achieving efficiency in terms of reducing T&D Loss, increasing PLF, generation, transmission and distribution of power, tariff on one hand and the norms for the provisions of service in terms of quality of power supply and time to be taken to render services to the final end users of the service on the other.

This book is an outcome of an Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi sponsored research Project titled 'Governance of Power Sector. A Study of Policy and Performance of Assam Power Sector which investigates the impact of the policy and institutional changes in the sector through these reforms. The book has been prepared on the basis of extensive field survey with an objective of capturing the field reality which often deviates from the stated norms/principle and guidelines when comes to the question of implementation. Apart from the secondary data, the experiences of implementers and the service recipients have been highlighted in a comparatives perspective through tables and diagrams. While many reports are based on mere statistical data, this report makes an effort to combine both by referring to the existing statistics and reports with the experiences of field visits, case studies, interviews, photographs and focused discussions with the officials and respondents. Household survey on service delivery has been done extensively and actual operation of power plants, the challenges faced by them, various micro-privatization schemes particularly Franchisee systems etc, official visit to field to monitor the service and to take care of discrepancies etc are the highlights of the study which have been presented in self explanatory tables. The purpose has been to depict the field reality to understand the policy-implementation gap which has been the findings of so many reports and studies.