The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has requested Members of Parliament (MPs) of all parties to intervene in the parliamentary process to push through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 during the coming session and press for referring it to the standing committee on energy.
In letters addressed to all MPs on Saturday, chairman of AIPEF Shailendra Dubey also urged them to request the Ministry of Power to circulate a copy of the draft Bill with amendments so that it gets discussed at length to ensure that there are detailed consultations with all stakeholders concerned.
Stating that the position regarding the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 is still not clear, the AIPEF chairman observed that while on the one hand, the Centre intends to introduce the Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, the recent press statement of the Minister of Power made it clear that several key issues like direct benefit transfer (DBT) are still under discussion and yet to be finalised. The Minister has also admitted that the DBT structure is still not perfect and that the Centre is ready to wait for five years.
The Draft amendment Bill is to be first finalised and then vetted by the Law Ministry before it is sent for clearance by the Union Cabinet and only then the Bill could be tabled in Parliament. In this dynamic situation, states have to be on alert so that they are not caught unawares, if events related to the Bill move fast, Mr. Dubey said in the letter.
The AIPEF has requested the MPs to stress that they have serious reservations and objections to the Bill and that the objections already raised by several states have not been addressed in draft Bill. The letter addressed to the MPs has been released by the State unit of AIPEF here on Saturday.
