Power engineers body condemns move to amend National Electricity Policy

All India Power Engineers Federation on Tuesday condemned the central government’s move to amend the National Electricity Policy “to facilitate privatisation”. According to a statement by the AIPEF, the proposed changes require extensive discussions as such time for submission of comments should be six months.

When fundamental changes are being introduced by way of privatization of the power sector, there is no basis to rush through more so under extreme distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

“All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) condemns the government of India’s move to amend the National Electricity Policy to facilitate the privatization of the power sector,” the statement said.

The body alleged that this is a clear attempt to introduce privatization through the backdoor and deserves to be scrapped.

The purpose of the central government is not to review or revise the existing National Electricity Policy but the total replacement of existing policy with a new policy to be recommended by the expert group so as to achieve privatization, the body alleged.

As per Electricity Act 2003, National Electricity Policy is to be prepared in consultation with the state governments and Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a statutory body.