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Power engineers urge Punjab govt to oppose Electricity Act
The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has hailed the Bihar government for its stand that the power sector should remain a state sector and opposing any
The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has hailed the Bihar government for its stand that the power sector should remain a state sector and opposing any kind of private participation in the sector. The AIPEF has now urged the Punjab government to follow the example and oppose the Electricity Amendment Bill.
On February 13, Bihar energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav wrote to Union power minister RK Singh against privatisation of the power sector and advocated continuance of electricity remaining a state sector.
The letter states that the Bihar model of improving power sector through state discoms should be followed everywhere in the country.
VK Gupta, spokesperson of AIPEF, said that electricity is a concurrent subject implying that both central and state governments can make laws.
“Given the fact that the Centre is forcing states to follow its arbitrary rules, this is systematic dilution of the roles and responsibilities of state governments and regulators,” he said.
“The experiment of giving franchisee of power distribution in Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur has failed completely. The franchisees did not invest a penny in infrastructure and so they were shunted out,” he added.
He said that Bihar has improved tremendously on the power front and achieved its targets before time due to hard work of employees. “All parameters regarding per capita consumption, peak demand and number of consumers have risen manifold in the last seven years. The transmission losses have been brought down drastically from 60% to 29%,” he added.
He said that the Punjab government should also follow Bihar’s example and oppose the proposed Electricity Amendment Bill, otherwise the state will lose control over the discoms, which will be against the interest of consumers.
