Opposing the move of Tata Power takeover of Wesco and Southco, Samajwadi Party (SP) State president Rabi Behera said the fate of 40 lakh consumers was going to be doomed.
Behera said, "Odisha was the first State to go for power reform or privatisation of power sector in the State 25 years back by loan from the World Bank. The objective was to reduce transmission loss which was at 56 per cent then and the financial loss was pegged at Rs 300 crore. The other objective of the reform was to provide uninterrupted quality power supply at cheaper rate. But after 25 years of privatisation of power sector, all these objectives have utterly failed. To hide their failure, the Government and the OERC every year is raising the price of power tariff to make up for the loss of the annual revenue requirement of the Discoms. But inspite of that they have failed to meet the loss and are going for further privatisation. They have failed to reduce the transmission loss projected at 15 per cent at the time of reform."
"If 1% transmission loss can be reduced, we can save Rs 75-80 crore per annum. But the loss of the power Discoms is still at 32 per cent and hence the annual loss of revenue is around Rs 2,500 crore. After Cesu, the fate of 40 lakhs Wesco and Southco consumers will be at the mercy of Tata Power Limited," told Behera.
The Samajwadi Party called upon other political parties and consumer organisations to oppose the takeover as well.
Behera also sought the OERC to direct the Discoms against power cut, power shedding, low voltage etc and warned of agitation against the move by the Tata Power.s