Climate Parliament demands renewable energy be made priority

A group of MPs has asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to give top priority to the renewable energy sector in the forthcoming vote-on-account.
The cross-party group, Climate Parliament, has written to Chidambaram asking him to ascertain that renewable energy is not pushed down the priority list of the government and that the Vote-on-Account will act as a foundation for the successful implementation of the annual plans of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
"As you prepare to finalise the Vote-on-Account in these difficult economic and political times, Climate Parliament would once again like to request you to ascertain that renewable energy is not pushed down the priority list of the government," the letter stated.

"This Vote-on-Account will act as a precursor or a foundation to the successful implementation of the Annual plans of the ministry and the sector in general," Climate Parliament Convenor and MP Sanjay Jaiswal said in the letter.
Despite an ambitious target in the 12th Five Year Plan, the capacity addition in the last two years has been showing a drastic downhill trend, Jaiswal said in the letter.
The letter comes after Climate Parliament recently submitted a report on the policy and financial initiatives that need to be implemented in the short, medium and long term for augmenting renewable energy in India.

This activity was a follow up of the meeting held with the Prime Minister in December 2012 and a detailed memorandum submitted to the Finance Minister during Union Budget 2013-14 requesting action on the issue.
The MPs in the letter said that they have been consistently raising the issue of inadequate budget to MNRE at the relevant quarters of government.
Bringing out some of the key financial issues facing the sector, the Climate Parliament also pointed out that skewed allocation of funding to MNRE has impacted crucial programmes.