The Hindu : Roll back power reforms: Bardhan

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Thursday, Aug 14, 2003

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Roll back power reforms: Bardhan

By Our Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR AUG. 13. The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), A.B. Bardhan, today demanded the scrapping of the Electricity Act, 2003, and rollback of the power sector reforms.

At a press conference here, Mr. Bardhan said the Government should stop encouraging private participation in electricity, transport, health, education and water sectors. This would only put the general public in more trouble.

The power reforms initiated in Orissa, New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh resulted in people paying more money for electricity without any improvement in power supply or billing.

The State Electricity Boards, wound up following the power sector reforms in some States, should be revived, Mr. Bardhan said, adding that the respective State Governments should run them efficiently. The State Electricity Boards incurred losses mainly due to subsidisation of power. ``The rollback was possible.''

The senior CPI leader, who is also the president of the All-India Electricity Employees Federation, pointed out that the Electricity Act, 2003, required several basic amendments. The Act talked about separate policies for the urban and rural areas which was not feasible.

About the ongoing power reforms in Orissa, Mr. Bardhan said that when the State Electricity Board was liquidated seven years ago, several companies had come into existence leading to total chaos. The existing structures were taken over by private companies which did not spend even a rupee for improving power distribution and not even 1 MW of extra power was generated after the reforms process started. Only the burden on the consumers had increased four-and-half-times by way of the hike in power tariff, he said.

He also expressed apprehension over the Orissa Government's proposal to privatise water. The CPI would physically oppose whenever there was any attempt to hand over a pond, a lake or a portion of a river to private companies.

On the Shimla declaration of the Congress that it would go in for alliance with like-minded parties in future polls, Mr. Bardhan said it showed the changing attitude of the party.

However, at the ground level there was no concrete move.

He said the middle-level leaders of the Congress had so far restricted their activities to only issuing statements in this regard.

``Nothing is going to come out of this exercise.''

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