State lags behind in power reforms: Tewari
Tribune News Service, December 3 2009

Chandigarh
Congress spokesperson and Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari has criticised the Punjab government for its failure to go for power reforms in the state. Blaming CM Parkash Singh Badal for not complying with the central directive on the issue Tewari said, “Reforming the power sector does not mean retrenching the employees.”

The Congress leader pointed out, the CM had once again sought extension of the deadline to go for the unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) citing flimsy and vague reasons. Tewari revealed that Punjab was the only state which had sought record number of extension for the reforms. “This speaks too much of the inefficiency of this government,” he remarked.

The Ludhiana MP said, the CM was trying to create an impression that the power reforms would lead to retrenchment of employees and doing away with the concessions to different sections of people like the farmers. “This is simply an excuse behind which this government wants to hide its inefficiency,” he said, while pointing out most other states across the country had already reformed the power sector without sacking employees.

He said, the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh had already been power sufficient while Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir were fast moving towards self-sufficiency and Punjab was lagging far behind. “I am afraid Punjab might turn out to be the only black spot in the entire north region as far as the power reforms and self-sufficiency are concerned and the credit for this must go to this government only,” he observed.

The Congress spokesperson argued, it was the responsibility of the state government to address the basic issues and problems which were coming in the way of power reforms. “He cannot always take the alibi that there are too many protests against the reforms,” he remarked, while adding, “Badal must explain to the people the dire need of reforms and not try to rake up the emotions which he himself knows are baseless”.

He regretted, this government which had claimed in 2007 that Punjab “would” be power surplus within three years had pushed the state to further darkness. “They have already prolonged the power cuts to 12 hours a day and I am sure, if things go like this the duration will increase,” he said, while pointing out, this would not only lead to a lot of harassment to the people but would have an adverse impact on the economy as well as the industrial exit from state would expedite.