The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has appealed to chief ministers of all states to oppose the proposed Electricity (Amendment ) Bill of 2018, as it’s ‘anti-people and is against the constitutional provision of electricity as a concurrent subject wherein states have equal power.’

“If enacted, the bill will encroach the sovereignty of states,” the AIPEF members said. The AIPEF’s federal executive meeting was organised here on Saturday. The members termed the changes proposed in the Electricity Act of 2003 as a matter of serious concern.

“This will concentrate all power on the electricity sector in the hands of the central government and will lead to complete privatisation of power distribution in India,” they said.

AIPEF chairman Shaliender Dubey said that power engineers will resort to two-day work boycott on January 8 and 9 next year, against the proposed changes to the Act. The members have also made demands of integration of all power utilities and implementation of the old pension scheme for all power engineers.

Secretary general Rathnakar Rao said, “In the proposed amendment, cross subsidy payable to different set of consumers within the distribution area will be reduced progressively and eliminated in a period of three years.”

“Further, any subsidy payable to a consumer will be through the provision of direct benefit transfers. This proposal is practically unworkable and sure to fail.

The AIPEF members said that changes have been proposed in the draft bill to pave the way for privatisation of the power sector. “The changes in tariff have been proposed to encourage privatisation and ensure guaranteed profits to private parties,” they said.

They added that the present regulatory commissions are guided by tariff policy whereas in the draft amendment, tariff policy will become mandatory. “This will make the central and state regulatory commissions subservient to policy dictates of the central government. They will no longer be independent,” they said.