<p>The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has demanded that the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 must be put in the public domain before starting a discussion on the same.</p>.<p>The AIPEF shot off a letter to the Prime Minister on Friday last week and pushed for placing the bill in public domain for stakeholders' comments.</p>.<p>The draft bill is not available on the power ministry website, AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta said in a statement.</p>.<p>According to the statement, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is included in the list of 20 new bills to be placed in the current budget session of Parliament.</p>.<p>The union power minister is to hold a video conference on February 17 with power secretaries of states and CMDs (chairman and managing directors) of discoms to discuss the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act 2003, it said.</p>.<p>AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey, in a letter to the union power minister, has said this is a short cut and rushing through amendments without due consideration or deliberations is not acceptable.</p>.<p>There have been reports that the power ministry has circulated a draft Electricity Amendment Bill proposing changes to the Electricity Act, 2003.</p>.<p><strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/changes-to-electricity-act-diluting-states-autonomy-852629.html" target="_blank">OPINION | Changes to Electricity Act: Diluting states' autonomy</a></strong></p>.<p>The proposed amendments entail de-licensing of the distribution business, among others.</p>.<p>Gupta said the reports are unauthenticated and deserve to be discarded, particularly as the amendments would introduce a drastic policy of separating carriage and content which was earlier rejected by as many as 20 states.</p>.<p>The outcome of the various suggestions of stakeholders on the Electricity Amendment Bill of 2020 remains undisclosed and a new draft bill has been leaked to a select few, the body said.</p>.<p>The present approach of the Ministry of Power is non-transparent and secretive, and it seems the government is trying to hide critical facts, it added.</p>.<p>AIPEF further said all the stakeholders, including associations/ unions of employees and engineers, consumers and others must be given sufficient time to present their viewpoints and the state governments are not the only stakeholders. </p>
<p>The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has demanded that the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 must be put in the public domain before starting a discussion on the same.</p>.<p>The AIPEF shot off a letter to the Prime Minister on Friday last week and pushed for placing the bill in public domain for stakeholders' comments.</p>.<p>The draft bill is not available on the power ministry website, AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta said in a statement.</p>.<p>According to the statement, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is included in the list of 20 new bills to be placed in the current budget session of Parliament.</p>.<p>The union power minister is to hold a video conference on February 17 with power secretaries of states and CMDs (chairman and managing directors) of discoms to discuss the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act 2003, it said.</p>.<p>AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey, in a letter to the union power minister, has said this is a short cut and rushing through amendments without due consideration or deliberations is not acceptable.</p>.<p>There have been reports that the power ministry has circulated a draft Electricity Amendment Bill proposing changes to the Electricity Act, 2003.</p>.<p><strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/changes-to-electricity-act-diluting-states-autonomy-852629.html" target="_blank">OPINION | Changes to Electricity Act: Diluting states' autonomy</a></strong></p>.<p>The proposed amendments entail de-licensing of the distribution business, among others.</p>.<p>Gupta said the reports are unauthenticated and deserve to be discarded, particularly as the amendments would introduce a drastic policy of separating carriage and content which was earlier rejected by as many as 20 states.</p>.<p>The outcome of the various suggestions of stakeholders on the Electricity Amendment Bill of 2020 remains undisclosed and a new draft bill has been leaked to a select few, the body said.</p>.<p>The present approach of the Ministry of Power is non-transparent and secretive, and it seems the government is trying to hide critical facts, it added.</p>.<p>AIPEF further said all the stakeholders, including associations/ unions of employees and engineers, consumers and others must be given sufficient time to present their viewpoints and the state governments are not the only stakeholders. </p>