Meet Modi over dangers of Electricity Act amendments: Kejriwal to BJP CMs

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday urged his counterparts from BJP- and NDA-ruled states to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him about the "dangers" related to the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003.

Calling the amendments "anti-federal", Kejriwal also wrote that he know "it won't be easy for you (CMs) to speak against this".

The letter, written to the Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Bihar, Nagaland and Meghalaya, also claimed that the amendments would render states powerless in the field of electricity.

"I know you belong to the BJP alliance and it won't be easy for you to speak against this amendments. But I request you to kindly meet the PM personally and apprise him of the dangers of this amendment," he said.

"Centre wants to pass the dangerous amendments in the winter session. If passed it would be disastrous," he added.

"All powers will be with the Centre if the amendment is passed. State governments won't be (able) to take any decision in the matters of electricity," he said.

He warned the CMs that the amendments would push up power tariffs.

"The poor and the middle class would be hit very hard... Centre wants to end cross subsidy. Almost all the states use cross subsidy to give cheap/free power to farmers and charge industries/commercial units more," he said.

He also said that the amendments, if passed, would make power tariffs the same for farmers, industries, commercial, residential and agricultural customers and Delhi will have to pay Rs 7.50 per unit.

"Citizens of Delhi who use up to 200 units are charged Rs 1 per unit while those using up to 400 units are charged Rs 2.50 per unit. Once this amendment is done, both the categories will have to pay Rs 7.50 per unit.

"This would hit around 90 per cent of all consumers in Delhi hard. The amendment would lead to huge increase in tariffs all across the country immediately for small and medium consumers as well as farmers," he said.

"The AAP government has been able to keep power tariffs the cheapest in Delhi as we have the powers to do so. Once these powers are snatched, we would be helpless and the common man of Delhi and all over the country will suffer," he added.

Addressing the media last week, Kejriwal had said the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003, were "very dangerous" and aimed at benefiting "a few power companies" at the cost of the people.

--IANS

nks/mr