Orissa: OSEB demand scrapping of Electricity Act 2003

Bhubaneswar, Jan 29: The Orissa State Electricity Board Employees Federation (OSEBEF) today demanded the scrapping of the Electricity Act 2003 enacted to reform power and improve generation, transmission and distribution of power in the state.

In a joint memorandum to Energy Minister S N Patro, OSEBEF Chairman D K Panda and General Secretary J K Ray said the effort to reform the power sector has miserably failed and demanded that the Act be scrapped by the government.

The Federation leaders said the Act destroyed the fabric of the rural areas as its provisions required generation and distribution of power from non- conventional sources and disconnect them from the national grid.

They said though privatisation was done with the belief that the private companies would provide capital required for improvement but not a single rupee had been spent for system purgation works and for establishment expenditure.

Power interruption became the order of the day. Consumer satisfaction was at absymally low level and the consumers had to pay for laying lines and purgation of transformers for a new connection.

They alleged that the safety materials were not available and fuse call and section offices were not working.

The rural electricity programme suffered. The state even failed to take advantage of the APDRP scheme as the private distribution companies were not funding the 25 per cent margin money.

Outsourcing of employees was causing financial loss and creating unnecessary litigation, the federation leaders alleged.

The leaders demanded to improve the deteriorating condition of the employees.

In the morning the employees marched in a procession and held a protest meeting in front of the Assembly in support of their demands.

UNI