A day after he wrote to his counterparts in non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) States over the issue, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Chief Ministers of States which are part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over ‘draconian’ amendments proposed to the Electricity Act, 2003.
Conceding that it ‘will not be easy’ for them to ‘speak against’ the said amendments given their political allegiance to the NDA, Mr. Kejriwal, however, sought to request his addressees to ‘meet the PM personally’ and apprise him of the ‘dangers’ of the ‘disastrous’ amendments.
“The Centre wants to pass dangerous amendments in the Winter Session. If passed it would be disastrous… This amendment is anti-federal...would lead to render states powerless in the field of electricity…State government will not be able to take any decision in the matters regarding electricity once the amendment is passed,” Mr. Kejriwal alleged a day after he sought time to discuss the issue with Chief Ministers of non-BJP or NDA-ruled States.
Mr. Kejriwal’s addressees included Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Assam’s Sarbananda Sonowal, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Goa’s Manohar Parrikar, Gujarat’s Vijay Rupani, Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar, Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur, Jharkhand’s Raghubar Das, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, N. Biren Singh of Manipur, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand’s Trivendra Singh Rawat, Tripura’s Biplab Deb, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio and Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma
The poor and the middle class, Mr. Kejriwal argued, would be hit ‘very hard’ once the amendment was made, which had an alleged attempt by the BJP-led Centre to discontinue cross-subsidy which was utilised by almost all states in the country to subsidise power bills for the agricultural sector. Stating that the Centre sought to trade in power in the future which would lead to ‘sky high’ power tariffs, Mr. Kejriwal urged his counterparts to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.