Title: Further discussion on the Electricity Bill, 2001 moved by Shri Anant Gangaram Geete on 8 April, 2003.(Bill passed)
MR. CHAIRMAN : The House shall now take up discussion on Electricity Bill, 2001. Shri Sontosh Mohan Dev.
(SILCHAR): Mr. Chairman, Sir, the Electricity Bill 2001 was sent to the Standing Committee on Energy on 31st August 2001 for examination and report.
Having considered the importance of this Bill, it was publicised on electronic media and in the national press. The Committee went round all over the country and took evidence from various Merchant Chambers of Commerce and State Governments, and also held discussions in Delhi calling the Power Secretaries. We had interaction with various public sector undertakings, with the Power Ministry and various other organisations.
Power is the main element of infrastructure, rather critical infrastructure, for economic development and for improving the quality of life. It is rather the mother of all industries. The hon. Minister of Power himself, in spite of the fact that he is the Power Minister, did take a critical view yesterday of the country’s overall power situation. It is unusual of a Minister to confess the present situation and asking himself for improving it.
This Bill was recommended by the Committee. The Committee made 112 recommendations. Out of these, 58 recommendations have come as amendments from the Government side and 31 recommendations are being considered to be attended to at the time of framing the rules and making the policies. I would come to that later on.
Power is a Concurrent Subject. The State Governments as well as the Central Government have got the power to make rules on this subject. I am glad that some of the States like Haryana and Orissa have already taken certain steps in
power sector. Only yesterday, the Assam Government has passed the Electricity Bill which is modelled on the basis of Bill we have at hand.
At the time of Independence, the Department of Electricity was the sole agency responsible for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the country. After that, the Government took initiative and set up NTPC, NHPC and other PSUs. Today, around 70 per cent of power generation, and 100 per cent of distribution is State-controlled. The Government of India, especially the present Government, has no hesitation to open this sector up to private sector. It has formulated policies to welcome the private sector for investment in power sector.
We have five lakh villages in the country. There is an estimate given by the Government, which the hon. Minister mentioned yesterday, that eighty thousand villages are yet to be electrified. I am sorry to say but I cannot agree with the Minister on that figure. The actual figure is much higher. You go to Jharkhand; you go to Bihar – I have gone with my Committee – you go to Sunderbans area; you go to the hilly terrain of Chhattisgarh and Dehra Dun areas.
But till date, the electricity has not reached those villages. One electric light planted in one village is the criterion by which they are considering that they have done electrification! I do not blame the hon. Minister. He has taken the figure which was examined by an independent organisation earlier. I would submit that it needs to be revalidated now. His thrust should be to cover those villages not only with hydel power but also with thermal power. He should also consider the non-conventional energy. There should be more and more tie-up between their Ministry and the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources which has got tremendous possibilities.
Mr. Chairman, Sir, during our Committee tour to South, we were glad to see various NGOs coming forward and taking active interest in this area. If you go to Sunderbans area, you will find that they have done well. In Lakshadweep also, they have done well. So, this is one area where I would suggest that the Government should take special care.
Sir, there is a shortage of power during the peak period. There are many areas today where power at demand is not available in the town areas. Even in the city areas, it has become difficult to get the power on demand. Why such a situation has arisen? This situation is mainly due to the fact that there is a mismatch between the hydel power and the thermal power in the country. Where there is more thermal power, there is less hydel power, and where there is more hydel power, there is less thermal power. Most of the projects have been done for political considerations. A very few of them are on the pit-heads. As a result, coal is being carried through 200 kilometres to 300 kilometres distance. There is a wastage of coal; there is a theft of coal. It adds to the cost per unit of power production. Even the quality of coal is not that good, as it should have been ideally used in the power sector. Not only that, the energy and power shortages are also reported. The figure is with me. It has been provided by his Ministry. It is at the level of eight to 12 per cent respectively.
Sir, before Independence, our position of power was 1,362 mega watts. Now, we have improved it to one lakh mega watts. It is a very good achievement. I must compliment our engineers of the public sector power companies because most of these works have been done by them. Some work has been done by the private sector people also. For doing all this, I must congratulate NTPC, NHPC, NEC and other organisations.
There is another point. The control of power today with Govt. is 60 per cent. The generation of power is with the State sector. So, we need to revitalise the State sector. The Securitisation policy given by the Ahluwalia Committee has been accepted by the Central Government. It has also been accepted by the State Governments. It is a good venture. We should go ahead. But what has to be done to those five lakh villages which are partly electrified? We, from the Standing
Committee on Energy had recommended that 60 per cent of the villagesi.e power
distribution in villages, should be done by the Central Government be.Ecause the State Governments do not have the money and the capacity to do electrification.
Sir, I know that the Government of India is asking the State Governments to take loans from the Power Finance Corporation. They are very liberal. Their rate of interest is also not high. But what happens if they take the money next year? They cannot give the Utilisation Certificate and thereby they do not become eligible for taking money.
Sir, APDPR scheme has been started. Mr. Minister, I have seen your Press release. More villages, more towns and more districts should be covered. So, I would suggest that this APDPR scheme should be implemented extensively all over the country.
Now, on the performance side of SEBs, I would say that there is a lack of quality; there is a lack of reliability; there is a lack of sincerity; and there is a huge loss on account of, what is technically called, Transmission and Distribution (T&D).
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Now, we suggested that a law should be made. The loss that is incurred by workers should be made a cognizable offence. You have accepted it. Some State Governments, like West Bengal, has already started it; Haryana has already started it, and they are successful. This area should be given more importance. It is because on a careful study, there is an average loss of 35 per cent of generated power by theft. This is a national loss. I, in my constituency, have seen that the transformer is being burnt. When I go to the SEB, they say that there are 100 consumers, but actually 200 people are utilising this power. The balance 100 people are taking power through this illegal method. So, these rules must be made compulsory all over the country, and we must see that they should be done properly.
Now, your Government and our previous Governments, have all agreed in one point that by 2012, we should have 1,40,000 mw. But, to do it, you need Rs. 6,00,000 crore; and for that, you need private sector.
Now, what is the position of private sector? If you go through you record given before the Committee, the number of applications that have been submitted is more than 150. Fifty-one have been given permission, and only a few have come into existence. Why is it so? It is because of the multiplicity of the organisations like CEA and others. We have been insisting that there must be one window clearance. I attended one International conference in Delhi, when the outside entrepreneurs came. They said by the time they submit a proposal, by the time it is approved, the cost goes up. Why? It is because the Budgets of different States go up. Railway fares go up. Price of coal goes up. Price of everything goes up, and that adds to the cost of the power projects, as it becomes an unviable project.
Now, for this purpose, clearance of the private sector should be given quickly. The Government has now decided that up to certain quantity of hydel projects or for certain thermal projects, you need not go to the CEA. It should be further liberalised. There should be a group who should look into it. I am not criticising the Bill. I am welcoming the Bill. But, I am asking for certain additional alterations from my experience of touring all over the country. Normally, as a Chairman of the Standing Committee, I should not speak, but I am speaking because of my support to the Bill.
Now, there is ample opportunity to harness hydel projects in North-Eastern region, in Himalayan region, in Uttaranchal, and in Jammu & Kashmir region. But, there are constraints of speedy approval of hydel projects, especially, from the CEA. The Ministry of Environment and Forests are the dog in the manger. I am sorry to say this. I have seen as a Steal Minister myself. They will neither allow you to do it nor they will approve your project. But, let them to go to foreign countries. I have seen that in Russia, inside the deep forest, there is a power plant; and they have taken all precautions to protect the environment. This is possible nowadays. In Tripura for one monkey, the gas plan waited for three years. Subsequently, the monkey was removed from a particular forest. The Tripura Government gave permission.
Now, resettlement and rehabilitation is another area. When you make a hydel project or a thermal project, resettlement of the house or the person whose land is taken, is not done properly.
Previously there was an incentive that they will not only get rehabilitation, there will also be a job incentive for each one of them. This is not being done nowadays. I do not know; I understand that the Government has taken a decision. That should not be there.
I will now come to mention about Tipai Mukh hydel project. The hon. Minister of State for Power is sitting here; she has visited that area; she knows it, why it has become unviable. It is because of the fact that the security cost, the flood management cost, the construction or diversion of a by-pass, etc. are loaded on the project. If these are all loaded on the project, naturally it will go up. They are loaded on the project on the basis of 12-year gestation period. This should be brought down to 6-7 years; and automatically the cost per unit will come down.
Apart from that, for reasons like disturbances in Kashmir and North-Eastern Region, the security cost must be borne by the Home Ministry. The floods which Brahmaputra and Barak create must be a cost borne by the Ministry of Water Resources. It should not be loaded on to the Project. If it is done, it will be a wrong thing to do.
There is a mismatch between generation and transmission in the country. As against the thumb rule of 1:1 in generation and transmission, investment has been lopsided and raised from this to 2:1. That is not correct. We recommended that generation is already opened. You have now left it to the Regulatory Commission. That is not very fair. … ()