Shelve plan to privatise power supply: AIPEF

The All India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) has urged Union power minister R K Singh to have a detailed discussion with power engineers on any proposal for

The All India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) has urged Union power minister R K Singh to have a detailed discussion with power engineers on any proposal for privatisation of electricity supply before placing it in the forthcoming Budget session of Parliament.

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The federation has warned that any unilateral move will meet with stiff opposition from the country’s power employees and engineers.

“We have learnt that presentations done during the power ministers’ conference on January 9 clearly suggest the government is coming with a new scheme for segregation of carriage and content with multiple supply franchisee in electricity supply,” AIPEF chairman Shailendra Dubey said in a written statement here on Sunday.

He claimed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had planned a new bailout scheme ‘ADITYA’ in the next budget, aimed at privatising state-run power distribution companies (discoms) with multiple supply franchisees for power distribution in an area and a network franchisee.

He claimed that as per the scheme, discoms would be eligible for funding from the Power Finance Corporation and other Central government institutions against project milestones, if all the conditions have been met.

“We have urged the Union power minister to shelve the plan of privatising power supply in view of the long list of failures of franchisees across the country,” Dubey said.