Law to make load shedding punishable may come soon: R.K. Singh

Union Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh on Tuesday said that a draft law will soon be proposed in Parliament to make load shedding punishable with a hefty fine.

"We plan to make load shedding something one cannot do without incurring hefty fines. This can be done once this law (on load shedding) comes into force, I'm confident that my colleagues in Parliament will pass it," Singh said at the ANI-organised India Infracon 2018 conclave, here.

The bill for the law will be presented in parliament on April 1, he informed, adding that state governments have been given a target to reduce their losses by March 31.

The minister further said that no excuse shall be entertained from state governments, given the Centre has distributed funds to reduce the transmission system.

Taking the audience to the root of the problem, Singh elaborated that distribution companies (DISCOMs) in various states had been resorting to load shedding due to the heavy losses that had accumulated through the years.

"Intra-state transmission system and the intra-state distribution system had run down because DISCOMs were in losses as they could not collect the price of power they had distributed," he continued.

The core of the problem- strengthening of the distribution system and retail distribution system was, therefore, managed by distributing funds to the state boards.

"We took up a project worth Rs 42000 crores to remedy this under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, wherein money - both grant and loan - was given to states for strengthening intra-state transmission and distribution system," Singh said.

Centre also approved a project Rs 32000 crores for strengthening distribution system in the cities, Singh informed.