Federation urges minister to not amend Electricity Bill

Patiala, July 4

The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) delegation met Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in New Delhi on Thursday. They demanded the Electricity (Amendment) Bill not be brought and the failed experiment of privatisation be stopped.

The delegation said the Electricity Act 2003 has all such provisions through which better and cheaper electricity can be supplied to the general public. The power minister said that he would go through the memorandum and would have a detailed discussion with AIPEF on all issues.

The spokesperson of the AIPEF, VK Gupta said the memorandum mentions that the Central Government made efforts to pass the Electricity (Amendment) Bill to allow private houses to distribute electricity using the network of government distribution companies in the field of electricity distribution without any obligation. The private houses would provide electricity only to profitable commercial and industrial consumers and thus take away the profitable sectors from the government distribution companies.

AIPEF Chairman Rathnakar Rao said the experiment of privatisation of the entire power distribution sector started in Odisha, adding that it had failed. He said the experimentation with urban distribution franchise systems tried in some states also failed. He said the way for better electricity supply should be paved by strengthening the government-sector electricity distribution companies.

Chief Patron Padamjit Singh said the process of privatisation of the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry is going on, despite the fact that electricity distribution in both of these Union Territories is very much better as per the established standards of the country. He said it would be in the greater public interest to withdraw the decision to privatise electricity distribution in both the Union Territories.

The AIPEF said the state distribution companies should be allowed to review these power purchase agreements with private houses, which are for 25 years, because some of these power purchase agreements were very expensive.

They said no such amendment should be made in the Electricity Act 2003, which would affect the autonomy of the states. They added that no such amendment rules should be issued, which would violate the rights of the states.

They further said expert power engineers should be appointed to the top management position in the power sector for better performance.