AIPEF demands LOI for Chandigarh power privatisation be withdrawn

AIPEF demands LOI for Chandigarh power privatisation be withdrawn

Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ November 24,2024

 All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF ) has demanded immediate withdrawal of Letter of Intent (LOI) given to Kolkata based company  for the gross irregularities in the procedure of privatization of Power Department of Chandigarh by administration..

Shailendra  Dubey, Chairman AIPEF  in separate  letters to   Home Minister , Power Minister , Finance Minister , Secretary Power and  Administrator Chandigarh  pointing out  various  irregularities in the procedure followed.

AIPEF has  mentioned tin the letter that as per   auditor report  of May 2022 for Eminent Electricity Distribution Ltd.(EEDL) for the year  2012-22 , the Company does not have any property, plant, and equipment,  intangible assets, and  has  not been sanctioned any working capital  limits at any times during the year.

AIPEF is of firm view that the company has recently been awarded LoI, (Letter of Intent) for privatization of Electricity Distribution in UT Chandigarh. This Involves maintaining and operating the distribution of electricity to consumers., However, as per audit report , the company does not have any requisite plant, equipment, tools and plant and spares  necessary for electricity distribution. This means that in case of any fault or disruption of power the company would utterly fail to maintain power supply in UT Chandigarh

On the other hand, the electricity distribution system of UT Chandigarh has been efficiently operated and maintained by the existing staff of UT Chandigarh under public sector management, and there was no ground to privatize.

The auditor’s report states that the company is in the business of investment in power companies , and this is  a gross blunder by the UT Administration in issuing LOI to a company which is in the field of finance.

Moreover ,  the administrative approval was given by UT Chandigarh officials for the distribution project of Rs.174.63 crores while the power to sanction such cases by UT / Chandigarh was Rs.100 crore. Thus the entire processing of bids suffers from a huge blunder of misuse of authority and over stepping in sanctioning limits.

AIPEF demands LOI for Chandigarh power privatisation be withdrawn as Chandigarh Electricity department has been making a profit for the last several years and is increasing every year . Now the  UT Chandigarh has created a man-made crisis by way of the privatization matter without any ground.