Consumers and employees being ignored in finalising Electricity Bill 2021: AIPEF

The members of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that the consumers and electricity employees and engineers are being ignored in finalising the draft Electricity (amendment) Bill 2021.

Chairman AIPEF Shailender Dubey has written a letter to Union Power Minister that the ministry has circulated the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 to a limited group of State and UT Power Secretaries for their sending their comments in two weeks. Bill 2021 proposes to replace the process of distribution license with the proposed distribution registration.

AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta said that in the recent virtual meeting of Union Power Minister R K Singh on February 17, a number of states including BJP ruled states have opposed the many clauses of the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021. He said that it seems that for the Ministry of Power only bureaucrats and big industrial houses are the only stakeholders.

“The Telangana government has ruled out implementing a franchisee system in power sector proposed as part of a larger privatisation move in distribution companies (Discoms).