The National Institute of Indian labour, an organisation fighting for the cause of power consumers, on Saturday opposed the move of the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) and the State Government for privatisation of the Central Electricity Supply Utility of Odisha (Cesu), a Government subsidiary for power distribution.
last year, the OERC has invited an expression of interest from the private sector to help it in appointing an advisor who would assist the company in selecting investors for transfer of the Cesu’s ownership and management. The OERC has a 51-per cent stake in the utility company and the rest are with the Government.
“Privatisation will lead to misery. The power discoms managed by the Reliance have successfully managed to show themselves of massive loss and finally the OERC cancelled their licence failure to make any improvement in the power sector. Considering the past experience, we should never allow Cesu for privatization,” said institute secretary Ramesh Chandra Satpathy at a Press conference here.
Satpathy said the Government should directly manage the power distribution as done in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka where the ATS loss is less than the national level.