People's Democracy

‘Review Electricity Act 2003 Now’

COTEE Holds Convention In Chennai

A A Nainar

SEEKING immediate review of the ‘Electricity Act 2003’, the workers, supervisors and engineers along with hundreds of casual and contract workers voiced their firm resolve that they will not permit the unbundling of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs), in a special convention held in Chennai on September 9, 2006.

The ‘Electricity Act 2003’ passed by the erstwhile NDA government sought to trifurcate the functioning of the SEB work into Generation, Transmission and Distribution as part of the reforms suggested by the IMF and World Bank, in electricity generation and supply in India. This was done with a view to encouraging private and foreign players in the areas of generation and distribution where there is lot of money to be minted in a country like India where hitherto these were the exclusive domain of SEBs. The enabling act was passed by the NDA government with support from the Congress and all parties except the Left.

However the experience in 13 states where these reforms were implemented has been disastrous. Few glaring examples are Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the infamous Enron Dhabol project in Maharashtra. With such ‘outstanding’ failures being in front of the people of India, the electricity workers, who were bitter opponents of the Act, are now organising campaigns and direct action programmes seeking review of the Act. The UPA government despite promising in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) to review the Act, has so far not delivered. The workers are now demanding implementation of the promise through a nationwide campaign. 

But, the central government, going against the spirit of the NCMP, is mounting pressure on the Tamilnadu government to implement the ‘programme of unbundling’ the SEB before December 2006. Recently the union energy minister Sushil Kumar Shinde visited the state to impress upon the government to fall in line with those who had already implemented the reforms in electricity sector. He promised help for starting “Ultra-Mega” electricity projects with a view to handing over the entire distribution network to private hands. This carrot and stick approach for implementing neo-liberal policies is aimed at disrupting the otherwise efficient electricity scenario in the state, for facilitating private profiteering.

This convention in Chennai assumes greater significance in this background. The working class of the state, who had been instrumental in effecting the changes in the governments, both at centre and state, are now demanding that the voice of the workers be heard regarding the Electricity Act 2003. The Confederation of Tamilnadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) took a decision to highlight the issues involved and therefore organised this convention. It was chaired by COTEE (CITU) president S Pancharatnam. In his presidential address explained how the private companies fleece the public through purchase price of electricity. While the NLC (Neyveli) electricity costs Rs 1.79 per unit, it was purchased for Rs 3.43 from a private company from the same Neyveli site. If the whole generation is handed over to private hands what would happen is anybody’s imagination. Eminent Atomic Energy scientist and member of the Planning Commission Dr M R Srinivasan presented a paper on ‘A case for Review of Electricity Act 2003’.

T K Rangarajan, CITU vice president, wanted the government to implement the promise made in the NCMP with regard to this issue. He debunked the claim of benefits of privatisation of electricity supply and quoted its failure worldwide, including in USA and Europe. The Millennium Development Goals of the UN seek to eradicate poverty by 2015, but after five years of the adoption of the goals, we stand at the same place where we started five years ago, he added. Reforms and lofty goals of poverty alleviation cannot go hand-in-hand as the neo-liberal reforms were the fountainhead of poverty, he asserted.

Tamilnadu state minister for electricity N Veerasamy also addressed the convention. He unequivocally expressed support for the workers resolve against unbundling and privatisation of SEBs. The minister declared to a standing ovation that till the DMK is in government and chief minister M Karunanidhi and himself being in the seat of power they would not sign anything to degrade the functioning of the SEB, which is being run very efficiently and profitably. Earlier the state secretary of COTEE S S Subramanian introduced the resolution of the convention which was passed unanimously. Earlier, T Arivazhagan welcomed the gathering and the convention ended with the vote of thanks proposed by the state treasurer Vijayan.