Eighth Meeting
Power Sector
Reforms in India: Issues and Challenges
New Delhi, India, December 16, 2009
CUTS organised the
8th Parliamentarians’ Forum on Economic Policy Issues (PARFORE)
meeting in New Delhi, on December 16, 2009. PARFORE has been an
initiative of CUTS to bring Members of Parliament (MPs), cutting
across party lines, on a single platform to mull over the core
economic policy issues that come up for discussion in and out of
the Parliament.
Bharatsinh Solanki,
Union Minister of State for Power opined that among others, open
access and tariff rationalisation are the key issues in which
states should take a lead following the guiding principles laid
down under the Electricity Act 2003 as well as National
Electricity Policy 2005. He further added that unbundling of
utilities and unbarred open access are the keys to facilitate
competition in power sector. He added that the Ministry of Power
has been initiating various programmes such as the Accelerated
Power Development and Reform Programme and the Rajiv Gandhi
Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana to strengthen the distribution
system and ensure power to all households in the country.
Highlighting the key
challenges facing the power sector, Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary
General of CUTS International stated that because of poor policy
initiatives, the country is not able to achieve capacity
addition targets for the last couple of years. Sharad Joshi, MP,
Rajya Sabha, while deliberating on the issue of power supply to
the agriculture sector, stated that the present consumption
pattern in agriculture is not sustainable.
In a presentation,
highlighting the key outcomes of capacity building initiative
RESA project undertaken by CUTS, it was mentioned that consumers
at large are still not aware of electricity reform process. Most
consumer complaints, especially in the rural areas, remain
unattended. Though, consumer grievances redressal forums have
been constituted at the corporate level of distribution
utilities, independence and autonomy of these bodies is a major
issue since they are effectively controlled by the utilities.
Several other MPs
including Geeta Gouri, Member, Competition Commission of India;
E M S Natchiappan; P J Kurien; P Rajeev; M B Rajesh; Shailendra
Kumar; and Gireesh Sanghi, participated in the deliberation and
expressed their views on further reforms in the power sector.
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