DMK's MK Stalin says power bill against federalism, tells PM Modi to halt move

Batting against any move to halt free electricity, DMK president M K Stalin on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 as it "encroached" the rights of the States and went "against the principles of federalism."

Free power supply has been a key pillar of economic growth in Tamil Nadu which protected lakhs of farmers and reined in food inflation, Stalin said in a letter to Modi. Undoing such a policy of free electricity through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020"would severely threaten the livelihood of lakhs of our farmers," he said.

Further, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic repercussions, not only was this an "irresponsible" decision but also "an attempt to divert the attention from the most pressing issue at hand - the effective management of the COVID-19 crisis," the DMK leader claimed.

Electricity, though, was in the concurrent list of the Constitution, tax on power consumption and sales came under the purview of the State government as per the state list, he pointed out adding while this was the case, the "Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 has been structured to transgress the Stateslegislative powers."

Some proposed provisions in the Electricity Amendment Bill "encroaches the rights of the States, and are against the principles of federalism enshrined in our Constitution," Stalin, who is also the leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, alleged.

Among the aspects he listed as "against States and federalism" were Centre's "direct control over the States Electricity Regulatory Commissions," and "taking away states adjudicatory rights over power procurement, sales and transmission contracts by enforcing Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority."

Using peoples mandate to "step into the states legislative power or to breach the principles of federalism," does not bode well for a healthy Centre-State relationship, he said.

"This centralisation of State agencies only to privatise the electricity later on is totally unacceptable." "I request you to withdraw the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 which intends to undermine the states legislative powers on electricity and to abandon the proposal to cancel free electricity for the farmers."

In separate, identical letters to Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states, he requested them to "stand by the efforts taken by the DMK to protect the rights of the states and the federalism guaranteed by our Constitution."

On May 18, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had strongly opposed snapping free power supply to farmers and made it categorical that the mode of disbursement of subsidy should be left to the State governments and batted for "greater latitude" to states to implement reforms.

One of the conditions of the Centre to states to increase their borrowing limit was discontinuation of free electricity to farmers. The Centre, as part of the conditions, had asked states to switch to Direct Benefit Transfer instead.

(Photo Credit: PTI)