The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the Punjab Governor, who is also Chandigarh administrator, to scrap the process for Chandigarh electricity privitisation.
Padamjit Singh, Chief Patron of the AIPEF, in a letter to the Punjab Governor states that the UT administration is fast-tracking the process of privatization of the electricity department at a supersonic speed as has been claimed that the winning bid for the privatisation of the department could be selected the same day on the tender
opening date.
It may be mentioned that for privatisation of distribution the draft standard bidding document (SBD) issued by the ministry of power specifies that bids should be valid for 180 days from the date of opening and bids with validity less than 180 days are to be rejected. The Ministry of Power has not yet finalized the standard bidding documents after inviting comments and suggestions from the public.
There are 17 intended bidders, including Tata Power Company Limited, GMR Generation Asset Limited and Adani Transmission Limited and NTPC.
While the Chandigarh administration claims that under Electricity Act 2003 the service conditions and pay of employees would be protected but the reality is that once privatisation takes place the implementation of Act and its safeguards are entirely the sweet will of the private party and the safeguards in Act would remain on paper only.
VK Gupta, spokesperson of the AIPEF, said that in the case of Delhi/DESU privatisation the private companies flatly refused to accept the pension liability of staff which caused endlessly hardship and suffering.
The AIPEF has expressed serious apprehensions that while service and pay conditions of UT employees are bound to suffer, neither UT administration nor power ministry will be able to help once the 100 percent sellout of UT Electricity department is completed.
Gupta said that in the draft electricity (amendment) bill 2020 there was no proposal to privatise electricity distribution of union territories but on May 13 the Finance Minister suddenly made an announcement regarding privatising electricity in all the UTs of the country.
Gupta further said that there is no justification for privatisation in the case of UT Chandigarh since it has low losses, low tariff, and good consumer service while if privatisation is adopted there will be a certain hike in tariff, consumer discontent, and burden on the exchequer.