UDAY will help in big way to wipe out discoms' losses by 2019

A day after the Union Cabinet unveiled a scheme to rescue almost bankrupt state electricity retailers, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) will help in a big way in wiping out the losses of discoms by 2019.
Inaugurating the conference of Power, Renewable Energy & Mines Ministers of State and Union Territories here, he said "a clear roadmap has been drawn to solve the present crisis of discoms."
"It will help in a big way in wiping out the losses of discoms by 2019,," he added.
The government had said yesterday that state governments, which own the discoms, can take over 75 per cent of their debt as of September 30 and pay back lenders by selling bonds.

For the remaining 25 per cent, discoms will issue bonds.
The central government will ease rules to allow states participating in the scheme to borrow more and help with the additional burden.

Amid protest by power sector employees and engineers against provisions in electricity (amendment) bill 2014, the Minister also said apprehensions regarding the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act would be addressed.
Meanwhile, addressing the conference, P K Pujari, Secretary, Power, said state specific issues are being addressed in meeting the target announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day address for electrifying the remaining 18,500 un-electrified villages of the country in the next 1,000 days.

Expressing concern over provisions in the bill, hundreds of electricity employees and engineers from states, including Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Puducherry participated in a protest demonstration at the venue of conference.
Secretary, MNRE, Upendra Tripathy said Renewable Energy is not electricity alone but a package of health and environment.
Ministers from 15 states and Delhi are attending the two day conference.
The agenda of the deliberations include preparation and implementation of state specific documents of 24x7 Power of All, electrification of remaining un-electrified villages in mission mode, expeditious implementation of Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Jyothi Yojana, implementation of Integrated Power Development Scheme and smart grid and financial health of discoms.