Power engineers oppose franchisee system
Say it will worsen financial situation of discoms
Manish Sirhindi
Tribune News Service
Yamunanagar, October 10
The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has welcomed the move to bail out power distribution companies from the financial crunch, but has decided to oppose the condition of the introduction of the franchisee system.
Shaliender Dubey, secretary-general of the AIPEF, said nothing had been spelled out to improve the condition of loss-making discoms other than introducing the franchisee system.
He said there was no point of handing over the creamy profit-earning urban areas to private distributors in the name of improving the financial condition of the discoms as the losses in the urban areas were far less as compared to other areas of the state.
Terming the exercise as a pro-privatization campaign, Dubey said the power engineers had been opposing the franchisee system as this could deteriorate the financial health of the discoms.
He said the Rs 1.9 lakh crore bailout package declared by the government was in the real sense a bailout package for banks and other financial institutions rather than power discoms as most of the funds were being deposited with these institutions rather than the discoms.
The overall loss booked by the Haryana discoms till March 31, 2012 was estimated to be around Rs 14,088 crore.
He demanded that the government should do away with the pre-condition of introduction of franchisee system for the bailout package as the power engineers in the state were capable of bringing down the transmission and distribution losses and private distribution companies were not required.