NCCOEEE to decide on protest on July 20 against Electricity Amendment Bill
Bahadurjeet Singh /Rupnagar
A meeting of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers(NCCOEEE) will be held on July 20, to discuss the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 and decide the mode of the nationwide protests against the bill, said V K Gupta Spokesperson All India Power Engineers Federation.
He said that the ministry of power in its unilateral presentation on Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 has wrongly claimed that the bill is based on stakeholders’ comments and consultations .The Ministry is so keen to privatise the power sector that it did not even put up the draft bill on its website for information of consumers and power sector workers and engineers.
Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 has for reaching consequences, and without taking the opinion of all the stakeholders it should not be placed in the Parliament in haste, said VK Gupta.
He said that there is a need for “a comprehensive white paper” eliciting the states’ and main stakeholder’s views, before proposed amendments in the Electricity Act 2003 are finalised and placed in the Parliament.After that,the bill should be referred to Parliament’s standing committee on energy.
He said that state governments cannot afford to ignore the far-reaching implications of the Bill and must oppose the push to privatise the discoms.It is clear that the proposed Bill will weaken the finances of state distribution companies and will have an adverse impact on subsidized consumer and utility employees.
He said that the government claims that the consumers will get choice in the selection of power company and will get cheaper power.The suburban areas of Mumbai have two licensees operating in the same area, viz Tata and Adani and consumers have the choice of selecting the wires as well as the supply provider. The experiment has failed since competition has not yielded lower tariffs, and is regarded as the highest in the country.
NCCOEEE to decide on protest on July 20 against Electricity Amendment Bill. V K Gupta said that the government of India should look into the country’s energy interests and not advocate for private players at the cost of consumers. Privatisation of the power sector in India as mooted through the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022 will prove expensive for the public while this may be a boon for a few industrial houses. Power sector privatisation is the god that is going to fail,he said.
July 15,2022
