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Punjab CM Channi chairs panel meet on power issues, Oct 25, 2021

Posted On : November 10, 2021
 

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday held a meeting with the committee constituted to look into the contentious power purchase agreements (PPAs) and other issues related to the sector.

The meeting was attended by local government minister Brahm Mohindra and education minister Pargat Singh besides chief secretary Anirudh Tewari and senior officers of the power department, said sources. However, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal could not join them.

A subcommittee has been formed to examine the power pacts in order to find a way to cancel or renegotiate them. The cancellation of PPAs is a part of the 18-point agenda set by the Congress leadership for the state government for implementation before the assembly elections. The government is also exploring the possibility of reduction in power rates in the state.

Govt to conduct survey of blind persons: Channi

Chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Sunday that his government would soon conduct a survey of blind persons across the state and provide best treatment to those who have any chance of regaining their eyesight.

The CM stated this during a meeting with a three-member delegation of the blind. A delegation of the blind led by Balwinder Singh Chahal called on the CM and apprised him of several blind persons, who can regain their eyesight in case they get proper treatment. On this, the chief minister said that after the survey, the treatment from best health institutions would be given to the needy and poor, according to an official release.

He assured the delegation that all their demands, including increase in pension, would be considered sympathetically and a positive solution would be worked out at the earliest.

‘Enhance financial aid to deceased farmers kin to ?50 lakh’

Congress leader and former minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi on Sunday urged chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi to enhance the financial assistance from ?5 lakh that was announced by former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to ?50 lakh for the families of Punjab farmers who died during the ongoing protest against the three farm bills.

“This move will bring the entitlement of the farmers on par with the compensation you’ve extended to the Lakhimpur Kheri farmers who lost their lives during the protest,” he said in a statement.

The former minister also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume talks with the agitating farmers and withdraw farm bills so that the farmers can return to their homes before the onset of winter. “With the festive season approaching, it will be fair to give a chance to the agitating farmers to celebrate the festivals with their families and not on the road,” he said in a statement.

  

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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. However, the body said that the CEA is not included in the proposed schedule of discussion. Further, only 5 states have been included in an expert group instead of all the states, it added. K Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, has stated that India is the only country that readily implemented a slew of reforms and used this crisis to herald a change in India''s economic thinking, it said. The strategy of government seems to be “never waste a crisis” and use the crisis of pandemic to streamroll so-called reforms by way of privatizing, it alleged. The draft proposal is of serious nature for which the present situation of a pandemic is a serious constraint, it stated. The Ministry of Power has once again found peak pandemic time as an opportunity in crisis to launch the draft amendments to National Electricity Policy, it lamented. Once the draft policy is finalised, the notified policy would have the status of “subordinate legislation”, and for this reason, the matters need to deliberate as in the case of the legislation itself or as in the case of amendment in the Act itself, it opined. Draft national electricity policy is pushing for more private participation in the power sector and launching sell out of public assets as at Chandigarh and Dadra Nagar Haveli, it noted. The preferred route being suggested are failed models like the franchisee system, transferring distribution responsibility to a private party, and separation of carriage (lines) and content (supply) business, it opined. Since the existing Policy is in force since February 2005 there was no emergency to totally replace it, while power engineers and workers as front line workers are already stressed in maintaining power continuity, it added
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