GUWAHATI, April 8 – The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed the Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 to pave the way for power sector reforms and restructuring of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) amidst strong protest and walk-out by the Opposition members. The members of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bodoland Demand Legislature Party (BDLP) demanded that the Bill should be sent to the select committee of the House for a thorough discussion on all the clauses and they staged a walk-out when the Government refused to accept their demand.
As soon as the Bill came up for consideration of the House the Leader of the Opposition, Sri Brindaban Goswami reiterated the demand for sending the Bill to the select committee of the House. He said that they were not against power sector reforms but all the clauses of the Bill should be properly discussed in the interest of the people of Assam. He pointed out that the Government itself is confused about the Bill as the Power Minister himself moved amendments to the Bill today. The Central Government took three years to prepare the Electricity Reforms Bill to be placed in the Parliament. The Centre held more than 20 seminars and took suggestions from more than 80 different organisations before preparing the Bill, he added.
Sri Pabindra Deka (Ind) expressed the view that the Bill should not be passed in a haste. He demanded that the Bill should be sent to the select committee of the House for a month or two so that all the clauses can be examined properly. Sri Bimalangshu Roy (BJP) said that his party was not opposed to power sector reforms but the people have the right to know about the reforms in detail. He said that all the clauses of the Bill should be examined thoroughly and the Government, instead of making it a prestige issue, should allow proper discussion on the Bill. Smt Pramila Rani Brahma (BDLP) said that the Bill should be sent to the select committee to remove confusion and apprehension from the minds of the people.
In reply to the discussions, the Power Minister, Sri Devananda Konwar said that there was no need for sending the Bill to the select committee as the legislators were given enough time to move amendments. He said that eight States of the country have already passed power sector reform Bills and the Assam Electricity Bill was prepared in the line of the Power Sector Reforms Bill prepared by the Central Government. Not satisfied with the Minister’s reply, the members of the AGP, BJP and BDLP staged a walk out and the Bill was passed in absence of the Opposition.
Meanwhile, in a release here this evening, the State Government said that power sector reforms would bring much needed investment in power generation to eliminate power shortage. So far eight States of the country have undertaken power sector reforms and Assam’s approach in this regard would serve the interest of the consumers, the release said. The release said that the State Government has initiated a programme to reform and restructure the power sector to improve the viability of the sector. The reform objective of the State Government is to make available reliable power supply to all consumers at reasonable price and restructuring of the ASEB as a means to achieve this objective, the release added.
The State Government revealed that several steps were taken in the past year to improve the financial and operational performance of the ASEB. Concerted efforts were made to reduce the losses and as a consequence, the revenue losses of the ASEB for the year 2002-2003, were about Rs 150 crore lower than the previous year. However, power shortage, transmission and distribution loss and other inefficiencies continue to cause concern and the ASEB’s monopolistic structure is not responsive to the growing need of the consumers, the Government said.
The release pointed out that one of the main reasons contributing to the present inefficiency and loss is the combination of generation, distribution and transmission of electricity in the same entity, which resulted in lack of focus and absence of financial and operation accountability. In order to improve efficiency, the existing function of generation, transmission and distribution are proposed to be entrusted to separate corporate entities through restructuring of the ASEB, the release added. The Government clarified that corporatisation does not necessarily mean privatisation. In the first stage, the Government proposes to run the new entities in the public sector. However, privatisation may be considered at a later stage only when the Government is assured that consumers will stand to gain from such a measure, the release said.