Proposed electricity bill: Power men’s conf in Delhi on Aug 2

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIEFP) chairman Shailendra Dubey said that prominent MPs of all political parties had been invited to the conference and they would be urged to support the agitation against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 in public interest.

Lucknow: The National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) has called a conference in New Delhi on August 2 to deliberate on the far-reaching ‘regressive’ impact of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 on the power sector, employees and consumers and announce a countrywide agitation against the proposed bill.

Giving this information here on Sunday, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIEFP) chairman Shailendra Dubey said that prominent MPs of all political parties had been invited to the conference and they would be urged to support the agitation against the bill in public interest.

Dubey, while welcoming the views expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday about the power companies, said that with his statement, it had become very clear that the public sector power distribution companies were the victims of the wrong policies of governments and if they paid the subsidy and electricity bills of the government departments in time, then discoms would face no financial crisis.

The PM said on Saturday that on the one hand the electricity distribution companies had a liability of Rs.1 1 lakh crores against payment of bills of generation companies and on the other, government deaprtments owed ₹75,000 crore towards payments of subsidy and ₹66,000 crore towards payments of government department dues to discoms .

“After PM’s statement, it has become clear that governments’ wrong policies are responsible for the mess in the power sector,” Dubey pointed out.

“Therefore, the proposal of privatization of electricity distribution through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 should be withdrawn and the public sector power distribution companies should be given an opportunity to work independently without government interference,” he demanded.