The Telangana State Power Engineers’ Association, a body of engineers from the cadre of Assistant Engineer to Chief Engineer working in all four power utilities of Telangana, have welcomed the resolution passed by the State Legislature on Tuesday against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020.
In a statement, president of the association P. Rathnakar Rao and secretary general P. Sadanandam thanked the initiative taken by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy and appreciated them for rightly pointing out the ill effects of the Bill. They reiterated that the bill was a danger to the spirit of federal structure and the rights of State Governments, burdening consumers, particularly farmers and domestic consumers of the lower economic strata, with higher tariff, loss of employment due to privatisation of the distribution companies (Discoms) as pointed out by the Chief Minister and Energy Minister in Telangana Assembly and Council, respectively.
The TSPEA functionaries demanded that the Centre withdraw the bill as it was against the interests of the majority sections of the society lest usurping the powers of States.
