The All India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) has criticised the Union government’s decision to privatise electricity distribution in the eight union territories (UTs), including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Puducherry, amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said on May 16 that power distribution business in the UTs would be privatised as a step towards enhancing private investment in power distribution companies (discoms).
VK Gupta, spokesperson, AIPEF, said the government considered the lockdown as an opportunity to privatise the power departments of the UTs by bypassing public opinion and not giving any time to stakeholders to debate the matter.
