Telangana State Power Engineers Association (TSPEA) has objected to the statement of Union Power Minister R.K. Singh to place and pass the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the monsoon session of Parliament.
President of the association P. Rathnakar Rao and general secretary P. Sadanandam said in a statement on Friday that placing the bill in Parliament without taking the power employees and engineers into confidence would be an open violation of the written assurance given to farmers by the Centre. About 27 lakh electricity employees and engineers of the power sector across the country would be forced to go on strike against any unilateral move to rush through the bill in Parliament.
They stated that All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) had appealed to all the Chief Ministers and administrators of Union Territories to oppose the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the larger interests of the energy sector and electricity consumers. It had also urged its State units to oppose the Centre’s decision to introduce the bill in the coming Parliament session.
The TSPEA functionaries pointed out that after the farmers’ agitation last year, the Central Government had given a written assurance to United Kisan Morcha that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 would not be placed in Parliament without discussing it with all stakeholders. Major stakeholders in the power sector were electricity consumers and employees, they noted.
Neither the Centre nor the Ministry of Power (MoP) had held talks with stakeholders including electricity consumer organisations till date on the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act. Terming the statement of the Union Power Minister misleading and cheating the public, the TSPEA functionaries said the matter of giving choice to consumers through the bill was completely wrong and misplaced.
In fact, by amending the Act the Centre was planning to abolish the licence of public sector electricity distribution companies (discoms) and give the facility to private/corporates companies to supply electricity through the network of existing discoms and make profits with the transmission and distribution networks developed by the public sector utilities, they cautioned.
