Power engineers for public debate on privatisation
Manish Sirhindi
Tribune News Service

Panipat, January 15
The Haryana Power Engineers Association has demanded a public debate on the franchisee (distribution of power and collection of bills handed over to private players) system which has been proposed to be introduced in the Panipat and Gurgaon circles.

While opposing the proposed franchisee system to distribute power in the best maintained and high-revenue circles of the state, the association claimed that the state power engineers were committed to reduce the line losses to improve the financial position of utilities.

The decision was taken during a special meeting of the association that was convened on Saturday during which the participants deliberated on the problems being faced by the engineers and utilities. The meeting was chaired by RS Dahiya, president of the association.

Dahiya said the association had welcomed the recommendations of the Shunglu Committee on restructuring of loans by the public sector banks and annual revision of tariff, but it was against the suggested privatisation of power distribution in all main cities of the state where the population exceeds three lakhs.

He said the government should debate the issue of privatisation of the power sector with all the stake holders as it could generate suggestions on ways to improve the technical and financial performance of utilities.

He claimed that the franchisee system had failed to produce the desired results as these proved beneficial only for the private players while the state-owned utilities did not benefit from it.

Dahiya said the restructuring of discoms, which had not been undertaken even once after the unbundling of the power board had also resulted in deficient consumer services.

In the absence of regular staff, the-day-to-day working was largely affected while restructuring of discoms could help in reducing line losses and increase revenues.