CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) warned that it would launch a nation-wide protest in November or December in case Central government pushes through with the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014 without taking into consideration the views of all States and all stakeholders.

AIPEF held its federal council meeting today which was attended by 20 state constituents resolved that the Government should give due consideration to the objections raised by the Federation and take corrective actions accordingly.

Shalindra Dubey Chairman AIPEF said that the first phase of reforms has not yielded the desired results and they are genuinely apprehensive about the adverse effects of the second phase of reforms through Electricity Bill 2014. It has been established that, both privatization and franchisee model have failed miserably and pushed the sector to financial bankruptcy.

Padamjit Singh Chief Patron said that the primary lessons of failure of power sector reforms and the writing on the wall make one thing very clear that there is something seriously wrong with the present policy, but instead of reviewing the policy, the process of reprivatization has been initiated and the franchisees are being given extension.

V K Gupta Spokesperson informed that due to huge AT&C loss, the sector is even unable to pay for the power purchase cost and arrear is mounting to spiraling heights. So left with practically no fund, the maintenance of network has taken a huge beating . This coupled with severe shortage of staff has taken a serious toll on maintaining power supply and is the primary reason for frequent power failure.

With no investment coming in Electricity Distribution sector and complete failure, rather lack of intent to curb theft and reduce AT&C loss, the Government is now trying to shift the focus through Electricity Bill 2014, which cleverly sets aside the investment part to Government or Government companies in network and metering including the responsibility of curbing theft and making private players to reap benefits by only supply of electricity from pole to house.

The private suppliers will obviously operate in cities and serve high end consumers and the onus of supplying to rural and BPL consumers will obviously rest on the govt. supply company which must have to operate in every supply area.

Rathnakar Rao Secretary General said that with the exit of high end consumers to private suppliers the cross subsidy will take a serious beating. This will not only hamper the interest of poor consumers but financially cripple the government supply company from the beginning. Neither any data is available to study the impact of the proposed legislation nor any policy frame work available for implementation of the bill when it becomes act.

Suneel Grover Sr Vice Chairman said that the draft amendment is an open move to introducing privatization through back door by way of supply licensees which is objectionable as it would lead to huge profits to the supply licensees and financial collapse of govt. owned companies, viz intermediate company and incumbent supply licensees.

AIPEF Federal Council in a resolution resolves that government should introduce a separate section in National electricity Policy whereby the objective to integrate the state power sector is contained . The objective of combining generation distribution and transmission under one integrated in one company is stated as a matter of policy for the States to adopt.