CHANDIGARH: The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) delegation on Thursday met Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at New Delhi and demanded the Electricity (Amendment) Bill should not be brought and the failed experiment of privatisation be stopped.
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 will go through the memorandum and will have a detailed discussion with AIPEF on all issues.
V K Gupta spokesperson AIPEF said that the delegation comprised of Shailendra Dubey Chairman, P Rathnakar Rao Secretary General, Padamjit Singh Chief Patron, Yashpal Sharma Secretary (HQ), Prashant Chaturvedi Chairman EIPEF, Ajaypal Singh Atwal General Secretary PSEB EA and A K Jain In-charge Legal Cell.
The memorandum mentions that the Central Government made efforts to pass the Electricity (Amendment) Bill to allow private houses for distribution of 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.
Rathnakar Rao said that the experiment of privatization of the entire power distribution sector started in Orissa has completely failed. Even the experimentation of urban distribution franchise systems tried in some states also failed miserably. The way for better electricity supply should be paved by strengthening the government sector electricity distribution companies.
Padamjit Singh said that the process of privatization of Union Territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry is going on, despite the fact that electricity distribution in both these Union Territories are very much better as per the established standards of the country. It would be in the larger public interest to withdraw the decision of privatization of electricity distribution in the Union Territories..
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.
No such amendment should be made in the Electricity Act 2003 which would affect the autonomy of the states and no such amendment rules should be issued which would violate the rights of the states. For better performance only expert power engineers should be appointed to the top management positions in the power sector.