Centre tells Uttar Pradesh to submit DPR by October

LUCKNOW The central government has asked Uttar Pradesh and other states to submit detailed project reports (DPRS) for the works to be undertaken under the new and ambitious reform-based result-oriented power distribution scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore.

Alongside, the controversial Electricity (Amendment) Bill, seeking to open up the distribution sector for multiple players enabling consumers to choose their service provider may also be tabled during the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament.

Powermen in UP are against many provisions of the Bill. The new scheme announced in the Union Budget-2021-22 was cleared by the Cabinet on June 30. To remain effective for five years till 2024-25, the conditional revamped distribution reform scheme aims to improve operational efficiencies of state power distribution companies by helping them strengthen their infrastructure. “We have asked states to submit their DPRS for the works they want to get done under the new scheme latest by October this year,” union secretary, power, Alok Kumar, said over phone. He said UP would be a major beneficiary of the new initiative.

“This scheme also focuses on three things — installation of prepaid smart meters in all the 500 cities covered under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), segregating agriculture feeders from domestic feeders and putting up energy meters on all the distribution transformers,” disclosed Kumar.

These measures, he said, would go a long way in improving discoms’ financial position by plugging in pilferages, reducing distribution losses and enhancing revenue collection, and in turn, helping them provide better services.

In UP, 61 cities with a population above one lakh have been identified for the AMRUT scheme. And all of them would have prepaid smart meters under the centre’s distribution reform project. Smaller towns in this category include Akbarpur, Amroha, Ayodhya, Ballia, Banda, Baraut, Basti, Badaun, Chandausi, Etah, Kasganj, Etawah, Fatehpur, Firozabad, Sitapur and Hardoi. In the meantime, the central government is also gearing up make important amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003, to pave the way for the entry of more players, including private suppliers, into the field of power distribution. Kumar said the Electricity (Amendment) Bill had been sent the cabinet secretariat that may refer the same to the cabinet for approval. “Subject to the cabinet’s nod, the Bill may be tabled during the coming monsoon session,” he indicated.

UP’S power engineers and employees are against the government bringing the Bill without taking the main stakeholders into confidence and have decided to join a nationwide oneday strike called by the All-india Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) on August 10.

“We have served a notice on the union power ministry with regard to the strike,” said Shailendra Dubey, AIPEF chairman, here on Friday.

LUCKNOW: The decks have been cleared for ex-gratia of Rs 30 lakh each to the families of 2020 government personnel who died of Covid-19 during duty in the panchayat elections in Aprilmay. The panchayati raj department has sent the list of all such employees to the state election commission, asking it to provide Rs 30 lakh each to their dependents as per government policy.

“A total of 3078 applications were received through district magistrates for compensation after the government issued revised guidelines in this regard on June 1 and 2020 claims were found to be genuine,” additional chief secretary, panchayati raj,

Manoj Kumar Singh said.

He said the government had already made Rs 300 crore available to the commission. Earlier in May, the state cabinet cleared a proposal seeking amendments to the rules to change the definition of poll duty to cover more and more claimants. The government increased the poll duty period from one day to 30 days which meant if any staff died of Covid within 30 days of poll duty, his family would be entitled to Rs 30 lakh ex-gratia payment as compensation. Under the guidelines existing then, only 74 personnel were found to have died during poll duty, 40 of them due to pandemic.