Despite vehement political opposition, the Uttarakhand government is going ahead with its plan to privatise power distribution system in two cities.
The government-run Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), the sole power distribution licensee in the state, had proposed privatisation of power at Roorkee in Haridwar district and Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district where transmission and distribution (T&D) losses and power thefts are very heavy. The move is being seen as part of the power reforms programme in the state where such attempt is being made for the first time.
But Congress leader Tilak Raj Behad opposed the move and called for Rudrapur bandh on January 15. Behad, a local MLA, said he would not allow any official of a private company to enter Rudrapur area where line and theft losses are at 60 per cent.
“There may be some opposition but we are going ahead with our privatisation plans,” said Principal Secretary, Energy, Shatrughan Singh. He said he was holding talks with Behad to resolve the issue.
Behad on the other hand said his main apprehension was that the poor would not get power once the distribution system got privatised. Similarly, BSP, which has considerable mass base in the two districts, had also decided to oppose the move, its leader Mohd Shehzad said.
Under the proposal, the process of distribution of power in the two towns would be handed over to private players. For this purpose, the UPCL is already under the process of inviting bids from the private players. Earlier, the government had stated that it would conduct a detailed study of some of the cities like Agra and Kanpur where the Uttar Pradesh government had recently handed over the power distribution system to Torrent Power company, which is also modernising the power distribution system there. However, no such survey had been undertaken and instead the UPCL went straight to the bidding process.
According to the government statistics, AT&C losses in Uttarakhand are at 30-33 per cent, mainly in the plains. These losses are mostly in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts where the two towns are located. According to an estimate, nearly 300,000 consumers record consumption of less than 30 units per month and 20,000 others show no consumption at all.
The UPCL officials think that the privatisation would help in curtailing the line losses due to which the company is in red and help improve the power scenario in the state.
