New Delhi: Amidst the many things that the countrymen want from whoever wins the 2019 General Elections is electricity. An association representing at least 1.5 million public sector employees has asked political parties to declare electricity a fundamental right in their election manifestos.
The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has written to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and other parties, asking them to include in their manifestos a charter of suggestions to improve the power sector.
AIPEF said in Lucknow and should, therefore, be affordable and available to the poor.
While noting that electricity drives economic development, the AIPEF said in Lucknow that it should be affordable and available to the poor. AIPEF chairman Shailendra Dubey said that because of "indiscriminate" change in policy, the domestic power sector was in a state of deep crisis. "Almost 65 percent of investment in the private thermal power plants has resulted in stressed assets. There is serious danger of Rs 3 (trillion)-4 trillion of public funds in the form of bank loans turning non-performing assets (NPA)," he said.
The body was of the opinion that a committee should be constituted, comprising of representatives from power companies, consumers and engineers, to review the Electricity Act 2003.
The national executive of AIPEF was held in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, and vehemently sought a review of a policy that envisages bundling of power utilities.