‘Will not buy Chinese items for energy sector’
LUCKNOW: Underlining a hardening of stance in the backdrop of tensions at the India-China border, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday said it will not purchase any equipment with China connection for its energy sector.
“We have decided not to buy a single Chinese item for the power sector in UP,” energy minister, Shrikant Sharma said here on Friday. “Otherwise also we do not purchase any item direct from Chinese firms. But now, we will see to it that even the vendors do not supply any goods that are made wholly in China or use any with made-in-China parts,” he added. Sharma said all efforts would be made to purchase items required for the energy sector from Indian firms or non-Chinese firms making production in the country to materialize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’.
“There cannot be business as usual with China seeing what it has done on the LAC,” Sharma said. Sources said Chinese firms had been selling low-cost equipment like solar cells, boilers, turbines, gen-sets etc that are all used in the solar and thermal power plants in various states, including UP. Though no new thermal plants are in the pipeline in UP, there is lot of stress on the solar power generation in the state.
Welcoming energy minister’s announcement, UP State Advisory Committee (SAC) member and UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, chairman, Avadhesh
Kumar Verma said decision not to buy Chinese goods for the power sector was a right step under the present circumstances.
“Around half dozen SAC members representing different sector like industry, agriculture and domestic consumers have already demanded government on Thursday to boycott Chinese goods procured for the state’s power sector,” Verma said.
The Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, Central government enterprise’ is purchasing smart meters from a Chinese company the technical bid of which was rejected in Nepal. We hope now there will be a ban on this company after the minister’s announcement. Around 15 years back there was a lot of hue and cry over the Chinese energy meters in the state after it was found that these meters gave inaccurate readings or ran fast. This forced the UPPCL to replace all Chinese meters.