CERC wades into Centre's battles with MayawatiUttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's political battles with the Congress-led upa government may escalate in the coming days, because of an unusual development. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (cerc) has threatened to curtail power supply to UP for non-payment of dues for overdrawing from the grid. This is the first time that the commission has decided on such an extreme measure. If a precedent is set, it could have a bearing on other defaulting states as well.The development, incidentally, has taken place at a time when Pro-mod Deo's name has just been cleared for the cerc chairman's job. Political circles fear that the cerc may have unwittingly waded into UP's political tussles with the Centre.In the past, Mayawati has alleged discrimination on the part of the government in the matter of Central financial allocations and the income tax-led inquiries being conducted into her assets. Of late, she has locked horns with Amethi mp and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi over the tussle for Dalit votes in the state. The power regulator functions autonomously but, given the fact that Mayawati suspects a design in every move the Centre makes on UP, there is every likelihood that the development may assume the form of a full-blown controversy.In its order, the cerc has asked UP Power Corporation Ltd (uppcl) to clear the entire principal arrears for overdrawing from the inter-state power grid in six monthly instalments of Rsl28 crore each, starting from May 2008. In case of non-payment, the commission may be constrained to physically curtail the power supply without further proceedings.UP and Jammu & Kashmir have been the worst defaulters as far as payment of overdrawal charges, also referred to as 'unscheduled interchange' (ui) charges, is concerned. The total principal amount overdue from UP is Rs767 crore, while j&k owes a little above Rs400 crore. These states have been accumulating the dues since 2003-04.Sources in the Union power ministry say that i&k was not slapped with a similar notice because of its 'special status'.Apparently, a lenient view has also been taken in regard to the state, because of the punishing winter conditions there. And, of course, the assembly election is due in the state later this year.On its part, uppcl says it has already filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court contesting the 'high rates' levied for excess withdrawal from the grid.Ensuring grid disciplineBrushing aside the possibility of this being a mere warning, a cerc official said that the commission had taken this step to avoid 'total anarchy in grid operation'. The tendency on the part of some states to overdraw power exposes the country's grid to potential collapse.To ensure grid discipline, those who draw more from the grid than what is scheduled for them have to pay a ui charge into a ui pool account. This is then paid out to those who were under-drawing from the grid. Realtime data for this is collected by the five regional load despatch centres. Meanwhile, in a bid to beef up its revenue intake, the UP State Electricity Regulatory Commission (upserc) has revised power tariffs for the domestic as well as commercial and industrial consumers. A hike of 22 per cent has been effected in tariffs for small industries, while for urban domestic consumers the hike has been 8 per cent only. The average hike in power tariffs in UP comes to 14 per cent. There has been no change in tariffs for the rural consumer and those having tube-well connections for irrigation.Urban users having a connection of 1 kW and using up to 150 units a month will be charged at the rate of Rsl.90 per unit and a fixed charge of Rs60 instead of Rs50 earlier. Such consumers were previously charged Rsl.90 per unit, provided they used up to 100 units per month. Clearly, Mayawati does not want too punishing a burden to be imposed on her immediate constituency.