Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the provisions of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014.He said the bill would allow private players to cherry pick high value customers and leave the public sector companies sick."I, therefore, request you (Modi) to withdraw the bill till a proper discussion and debate on the consequences of such amendments are considered by convening a meeting of chief ministers," Panneerselvam said. In a letter to Modi, the text of which was released to the media here, he said: "These draft amendments seek to bring significant changes in the existing electricity act without taking state governments into confidence and getting their concurrence on these major changes in this act."
By separating carriage and content in the distribution sector, the bill, in one stroke, will make all power utilities in the public sector totally unviable, he said."This bill seeks to give unbridled access to private players to supply power to consumers and enable them to use the already laid out distribution network of the public sector power companies," Panneerselvam said.He said without any investment in the distribution network or any responsibility to maintain the network, the proposed supply licensees would be able to access all the high value customers in commercially viable areas amounting to cherry picking without any social obligations.
The state public sector power utilities would only be left with the obligation of power supply to subsidised categories of consumers which will make them financially sick."Such a skewed amendment to the act without proper consultation with state governments at the appropriate level, and without considering their views, is totally against the federal spirit of the Indian Constitution and co-operative federalism which you have been espousing," he said.