Slave Labour

Published in the Friday Times on April 11, 2008  

 

Sir, 

 

 It is reported that "Pepco is now demanding Rs. 9 plus for a unit" instead of Rs 3.69 per unit from KESC. Contrast this with the prices that are charged by electric utilities in India. This is from an article by Brahma Chaellaney in "The Hindu" of March 17: "Escalating construction costs have resulted in all the newer nuclear plants pricing their electricity at between 270 and 285 paisa a kilowatt hour (kWh). Compare those tariffs with Reliance Energy's coal-fired Sason plant project, which has contracted to sell power at 119 paisa kWh, or even with the poorly-run Dadri plant, which supplies electricity to Delhi at 225 paisa a kWh, although coal has to be hauled for the plant over long distances". I doubt that even the KESC (let alone Pepco) knows that electricity is so cheap (Rs 1.19 to Rs 2.85 per unit) in India. So it is likely that the eight hour long power outages are due to KESC not being able to buy electricity at Rs 9 per unit from Pepco.  

 

Someone recently suggested using buffaloes to generate electricity by using gear boxes  to convet the animals' five revolutions per minute required by generators. It may theoretically be possible to manufacture such gear boxes, but the cost would be prohibitive even if someone did succeed in making them. In fact, it would be much better to convert what comes out of the animals into methane gas, which could then be used to produce electricity. However, there is one method which can be used by our feudals who have plenty of slave labour working in their fields. This would require a stationary bicycle to which a dynamo is attached. The dynamo would produce power to run a TV set or an energy-saver bulb. About 100 men would easily illuminate the palaces of our waderas. So if ever the electric supply to a feudal's house is suspended (for non-payment), he can easily get his slaves to produce electricity for him in this manner. Shakir Lakhani Karachi