The Ministry of Power issued an Office Memorandum on 05 Feb 2021 , circulating the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 to a limited group of State and UT Power Secretaries , with comments to be sent in two weeks. As per this OM the comments could be sent by 19 Feb . The draft bill was not put on the website of Power Ministry.
Even before the two weeks period, on 10 Feb the Ministry issued a notice for conducting a videoconference on 17 Feb. Thereby the States / UTs were expected to give their response to the Power Minister even ahead of the given date of 19 Feb.
The time schedule of response in VC proceedings was extremely limited with each region being given just one hour slot . The summary of allotted time slots is as under
|
Region |
No. of States/UTs |
Time Given for VC |
|
North |
10 |
1 Hour |
|
West |
7 |
1 hour |
|
South |
7 |
1 hour |
|
East, North East |
12 |
1 hour |
2. The procedure adopted by the Power Ministry is not acceptable and AIPEF again registers it’s protest as under on following points.
i) Amendments be put on the website.
ii) All stakeholders including employees / engineers & consumers are given a chance to submit objections.
iii) Minimum six months be given for sending comments.
iv) Earlier Bill 2020 be withdrawn.
v) Ministry to ensure extensive interaction with all stakeholders as assured in the meeting of 03 July 2020.
vi) No step be taken to restructure or privatise any distribution entity in any State/ UT as Bill is pending . Action on bids in case of UT Chandigarh and others be stayed.
vii) Draft standard bidding guidelines be withdrawn.
viii) OM of Ministry dated 05 Feb be amended with extended date of response and circulated to all stakeholders.
Thanks with regards.
Sincerely Yours
Shailendra Dubey
Chairman