Under this fund-raising exercise, the Board has sold at least 17 eco-friendly assets in the past few years. These include air pollution control equipment, ash handling systems and boilers. Among the purchasers are Bank of Punjab, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Exide Industries and Bank of Rajasthan.

While PSEB chief finance controller A K Aggarwal defends the practice as a ``modern technique of raising funds'', a section of the employees has charged the authorities with mortgaging their future. The accounts branch points out that the lease money paid in such cases isalmost half the interest money paid to financial institutions for securing loans for the purchase of such equipment.

The idea has been borrowed from the electricity boards of other states. Under the scheme, the Board sells eco-friendly assets to private companies, which, in turn, seek and secure hundred per cent depreciation under a provision that entitles them to rebate in income tax. And the Board got money to clear dues and meet immediate needs. It also saves the board the pains of coughing up hefty rates of interest on loans taken from financial institutions.

That the board has sold assets to private companies came to the notice of the employees when recently the local accounts branch sent out a communication to the New India Assurance Company, listing out such assets and seeking insurance cover on them from September 12, 1999 to September 11, 2000. The communication lists the assets sold, besides names of the 15 odd institutions, which have purchased them.

The move of the PSEB seeking insurancecover for the sold-out assets, has raised eyebrows. ``Having sold out its assets, the authorities should have left the insurance to the purchasers'', an official remarked.