In backdrop of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog proposal to integrate all government departments in the same sector, power engineers have demanded merging of all power utilities in Uttar Pradesh for efficiency.
All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) chairman Shailendra Dubey has urged UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath to integrate all nine power corporations for better coordinated action towards achieving the ambitious ‘power for all’ target. He said that the policy statement of Niti Aayog is most welcome step and UP Government should act immediately to implement it by integrating all nine power corporations of UP and reconstitute UP State Electricity Board limited .
In his recent visit to lucknow, NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar had suggested to the UP government to integrate departments operating in the same sector, so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governance mantra could be implemented properly and departments worked smoothly. A committee chaired by the CM would soon take the final call with regards to the proposed integration process.
Dubey observed the policy statement of NITI Aayog was most appropriate and the Yogi government should act immediately to integrate all nine power corporations and reconstituting UP State Electricity Board (UPSEB). The UPSEB was dissolved in January 2000.
He stressed electricity generation, transmission and distribution were integrated subjects, therefore the power corporations be integrated for better coordinated efforts, which would help in reducing unnecessary administrative expenses of nine power corporations.
He claimed UPSEB was unbundled under the pressure of World Bank in 2000 in the name of financial losses, but despite unbundling losses had been galloping. UPSEB had Rs 77 crore loss at the time of unbundling in 2000, which climbed up to Rs 75,000 crore in 2016-17.
Similarly, total accumulated losses of all state electricity boards in the country in 2003 at the time of enactment of Electricity Act 2003 were Rs 23,000 crore, which have touched Rs 4,14,000 crore, while running up debts of almost Rs 4,22,000 crore. Dubey noted mounting losses were proof enough of the utter failure of the unbundling experiment of UPSEB.