Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 4: All India Power Engineers Federation today strongly demanded integration of power utilities and review of energy policy and power purchase agreements in the country.
Talking to media-persons at the sidelines of the All India Power Engineers Federation meet here today, national chairman of the Federation, Shailendra Dubey strongly pleaded to modify National Electricity and Tariff Policy, integration of power utilities and review of energy policy in the country. He said that National Electricity and Tariff Policy be modified to facilitate addition of green power while at the same time giving adequate protection to State power utilities from adverse consequences of stranded Thermal Power Station assets.
Expressing concern towards apathetic attitude of the J&K Government and Power Development Department, Dubey said that power engineers are facing worst situation in the State. A Junior Engineer, Assistant Engineer or even AEE is given next promotion in own pay and grade and even a Chief Engineer retires in the pay grade of AEE or AE with meager salary or pension. It is unfortunate that a PDD Chief Engineer in J&K is hardly getting a salary of Rs 50,00 to Rs 60,000 per month while his counter part in UP, Uttrakhand or Gujarat etc is getting around Rs 1.50 lakh salary. The engineers are getting hardly Rs 30 field allowance which is matter of shame for the department.
The Federation chief urged upon the J&K Government to stop this policy and do justice with the J&K PDD engineers otherwise, All India Federation will join hands with the J&K Electrical Engineering Graduate Association to launch an agitation.
Dubey pointed out that with the present situation of surplus capacity the financial condition of several state power utilities is deteriorating whereby high cost power contracted under earlier PPAs has to be availed or alternately capacity surrendered and charges paid without availing energy. Several state DISCOMs are facing distress situation of stranded generation capacity of state thermal stations whereby fixed charges are being incurred round the year with low energy availed. He said that PPAs should be amended to give the State DISCOMs the choice to surrender surplus power from IPPs and this power be at the disposal of the IPP / developer who should be free to sell power from that surrendered capacity to any purchaser at any rate.
He said the time and cost overrun in construction of 1200 MW Teesta 3 project in Sikkim has caused tariff to increase over 250% and the policy of PPP mode in executing power projects has failed disastrously. A high level probe be ordered in this scam. He said several resolutions were also passed during the meet here today.
Earlier, the national meet was addressed by Padamjit Singh chief patron, Shaliendra Dubey- chairman, Rathnakar Rao – secretary general, K Ashok Rao, Sunil Jagtap, Suryakant Pawar, G S Bhadauria, Sunil Sood, Prashant Pattanaik, NR Ray, V K S Parihar, Rajesh Srivastava, Rajeev Singh, Sanjay Thakur, K Appraswamy, B L Yadav, Prashant Chaturvedi, B R Mishra, Pirzada Hidayatulla, Neeraj Sharma and delegates from other states .
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