On Some Power Projects, PM Narendra Modi Finds His ‘Hands Tied’: Foreign Media
In a small Himalayan village near a wildlife sanctuary in India’s north, 200 families have banded together to decide whether a hydroelectric power plant slated for their land can go ahead. To the chagrin of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, their answer will be a resounding “no”. Surrounded by chilgoza, or pine nut trees, Lippa in Himachal Pradesh is only the second known case in India where a court has allowed a community to determine the outcome of a commercial project. While this is a victory for villagers using the 2006 Forest Rights Act — which says no forest land can be taken for a developmental project without the consent of those affected — experts say it will also lead to the derailment of other major projects as communities push back against land grabs. Hands tied The empowerment of villages by the National Green Tribunal is causing further challenge for Modi, who was forced by farmers’ protests to step back from a push last year to allow companies to acquire land in non-forest areas. While Modi is promoting the ease of doing business in India, he is restrained from overhauling the Forest Rights Act to free up more land for companies. In the meantime, the opposition has blamed him for leading a government that favors the business elite over the poor. “There is bound to be more conflict because the government is not resolving the problems and the industry is not keen to look into the genuine demands and needs of people,” said Ritwick Dutta, an environmental lawyer and managing trustee of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, who fought on behalf of Lippa villagers in National Green Tribunal. “They are bypassing the law.” There are no official figures available on number of industries affected — projects including mining, coal and pipelines have either been scrapped or trapped in disputes as tribals refused to give consent or protest when local governments strip their rights. The Tribal Affairs Ministry told the Indian Parliament in July that of the 2,306 projects received over the last three years, 432 were pending environmental clearance. It is unclear how many are being held back by the act, however the tribunal has commented on the “magnitude and scale at which hydro projects are being set up in the state of Himachal Pradesh”. A group of neighboring villages in Odisha were the first to beat the system when the Supreme Court in 2013 awarded power to locals to decide on a proposal to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri hill. They refused to give the land over to the project, forcing Vedanta Resources Plc. to abandon its plan to source minerals for it alumina refinery plant from the area. Investments On Hold mberg | Updated: October 10, 2016 15:33 IST EMAIL PRINT 19 COMMENTS On Some Power Projects, PM Narendra Modi Finds His ‘Hands Tied’: Foreign Media The empowerment of villages by the National Green Tribunal is causing challenge for PM Narendra Modi. In a small Himalayan village near a wildlife sanctuary in India’s north, 200 families have banded together to decide whether a hydroelectric power plant slated for their land can go ahead. To the chagrin of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, their answer will be a resounding “no”. Surrounded by chilgoza, or pine nut trees, Lippa in Himachal Pradesh is only the second known case in India where a court has allowed a community to determine the outcome of a commercial project. While this is a victory for villagers using the 2006 Forest Rights Act — which says no forest land can be taken for a developmental project without the consent of those affected — experts say it will also lead to the derailment of other major projects as communities push back against land grabs. Hands tied The empowerment of villages by the National Green Tribunal is causing further challenge for Modi, who was forced by farmers’ protests to step back from a push last year to allow companies to acquire land in non-forest areas. While Modi is promoting the ease of doing business in India, he is restrained from overhauling the Forest Rights Act to free up more land for companies. In the meantime, the opposition has blamed him for leading a government that favors the business elite over the poor. “There is bound to be more conflict because the government is not resolving the problems and the industry is not keen to look into the genuine demands and needs of people,” said Ritwick Dutta, an environmental lawyer and managing trustee of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment, who fought on behalf of Lippa villagers in National Green Tribunal. “They are bypassing the law.” There are no official figures available on number of industries affected — projects including mining, coal and pipelines have either been scrapped or trapped in disputes as tribals refused to give consent or protest when local governments strip their rights. The Tribal Affairs Ministry told the Indian Parliament in July that of the 2,306 projects received over the last three years, 432 were pending environmental clearance. It is unclear how many are being held back by the act, however the tribunal has commented on the “magnitude and scale at which hydro projects are being set up in the state of Himachal Pradesh”. A group of neighboring villages in Odisha were the first to beat the system when the Supreme Court in 2013 awarded power to locals to decide on a proposal to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri hill. They refused to give the land over to the project, forcing Vedanta Resources Plc. to abandon its plan to source minerals for it alumina refinery plant from the area. Investments On Hold Ads by ZINC “A negative impact is visible on the land acquisition process, and fresh private investments are on hold,” said D.S. Rawat, secretary general of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. “As central and state governments are working hard to attract investments to cater
Centre tells state powers to push reforms, unlock demand
The Centre has put the proposed amendment to the Electricity Act on the backburner, opting instead to work with state governments on measures to open up the power market and unlock latent demand through regulatory reforms. “Do you see any work (reforms) suffer or stalled (in the absence of the amendments)? Our initiatives are progressing well even without the (proposed) amendments to the Act. We are working with states on taking things forward,” power minister Piyush Goyal said in reply to a question whether the amendment Bill would be re-introduced in the next session of Parliament. The amendments seek to segregate the distribution (carriage) and supply (content) businesses. This is expected to bring competition by having multiple distribution licences in an area, giving consumers the freedom to choose their supplier. The amendment Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 19, 2014. It was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy. The panel submitted its report on May 7, 2015. The refreshed amendment Bill, incorporating the committee’s recommendations, will have to be cleared by the Cabinet before it can be reintroduced in Parliament. The Centre’s unwillingness to move the Bill at this juncture is understandable, given the prevailing conditions in the power market where most of the generation units are running at only around 60% due to subdued demand. Besides, the scheme for turning around state discoms has been rolled out only recently and is yet to take root. So the government appears to be gradually prepping the market and the state governments for a full-on competition. As a first step, at last week’s consultations with states at Vadodara, Goyal got them on board to free up unused plant capacity under their contract so that utilities can sell power in the spot market. To supplement this move, Goyal said an hourly purchase framework would also be developed alongside the day-ahead market. “This will help generators recover costs and also increase availability of cheaper power. This is a natural progression as we are moving from an absolute deficit to a power surplus situation,” Goyal said after the conference. Power secretary P K Pujari said the provision allowing generators to sell ‘unrequisitioned’ power in the spot market was there in the tariff policy. But the various levels in state administration reluctant to taking decisions. “The issue is administrative or regulatory, not of policy. We will work out the details,” he said. Boomer Esiason Womens Jersey
Kerala:Soon, power cut alerts on SMS
Complaints about power cuts taking consumers by surprise will soon be a thing of the past with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) planning to inform citizens about such shut downs in advance through a short messaging service (SMS) facility. Power minister Kadakampally Surendran said here on Tuesday that his department plans to provide more information technology-based services to KSEB consumers as part of efforts to improve efficiency. He said that there are complaints that section officers do not respond to phone calls regarding power failure. To tackle this, the board has come up with a toll-free number — 1912 — where such complaints can be registered. In addition, the consumers can also send complaints to the KSEB’s WhatsApp number, 9496018367. The minister said that the board will provide the option to access the electricity bills through emails and SMS. The board has installed cash deposit machines (CDMs) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kozhikode by which a consumer can pay his electricity bill anytime. Once the facility is found to be successful it will be extended to other places, the minister said. Also, the board has decided to simplify the formalities for availing a new power connection. The application form will hereafter be a one-page document. Along with it, only the identification document and ownership certificate needs to be produced. James van Riemsdyk Womens Jersey
A new lesson in saving energy in Kerala
The students of Government Mappila UP School, Ozhukur here are set to put in all efforts to reduce their domestic electricity consumption and the best part is the luckiest among them would get their power bill paid by the school. As per the new project Vilakkanakkam inaugurated at the school two days ago, electricity bill of those students who have successfully saved energy will be paid by the school management. The initiative is supported by Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). The beneficiaries will be selected through continuous monitoring of the households. A two-member committee has been formed for each class to document power bills and select eligible households every three months. Coordinator of the project, R K Das said the project aimed to make students aware of the importance of saving energy . “We have a strength of 1,500 stu dents and are hopeful that the project will effectively bring down power consumption in the region. We are already getting feedback from parents that their children are now vigilant about saving power,“ he said. The school has also organized a one-day workshop for students and parents on manufacturing of LED bulbs. The institution also has plans to start commercial production of LED bulbs and distribute them among students, with the support of energy management cell (EMC). Brian Robison Jersey
Bill to amend Electricity Act put on back burner
The Centre has put the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act on the back burner, opting instead to work with state governments on measures to open up the power market and unlock latent demand through regulatory reforms. “Do you see any work (reforms) suffer or stall (in the absence of the amendments)? Our initiatives are progressing well even without the (proposed) amendments to the Act. We are working with states on taking things forward,“ power minister Piyush Goyal said in reply to a question whether the amendment bill would be re-introduced in the next session of Parliament. The amendments seek to segregate the distribution (carriage) and supply (content) businesses. This is expected to bring competition by having multiple distribu tion licences in an area, giving consumers freedom to choose their supplier. The amendment bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on December 19, 2014. It was referred to the parliamentary standing committee on energy. The panel submitted its report on May 7, 2015. The refreshed amendment bill, incorporating the committee’s recommendations, will have to be cleared by the Cabinet before it can be re-introduced. The Centre’s unwillingness to move the bill at this juncture is understandable when most generation units are running at only around 60% due to subdued demand. Torry Holt Womens Jersey
Rajasthan and Haryana will outshine other states as far UDAY is concerned: Piyush Goyal, Power Minister
n a conversation with ET Now, Piyush Goyal, Power Minister, says he is very satisfied with progress of UDAY. Edited excerpts ET Now: Are you satisfied with how the UDAY bonds are doing? Piyush Goyal: This is now about six months of implementation of UDAY bonds in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and there were truly the ones which are making the highest losses. Personally, I am very, very satisfied with the progress of UDAY. In UDAY. we are not giving out money or doles or subsidies. We have looked at a self regulation mechanism to permanently solve this problem and that can only happen when you ensure that people are not incentivised to go truant again. I am glad that the states have cooperated. The trajectory of losses this year will certainly be significantly lower than last year while it may not have resulted in game changing increase in power demand it was never intended to because at the outset we first want them to become stronger and then power demand or their ability to purchase power will be a natural outcome of improved deficiency. ET Now: If I may ask you something which you also mentioned in your address earlier, the financial aspects by and large of UDAY have been taken care of. They have gone as planned but operational parameters are something which you flagged off personally as well. Perhaps there is something you are not very satisfied with. Who do you see are the best performers in UDAY so far on operational parameters and which states are remained behind. Piyush Goyal: No by and large I would not like to get into the specific states because I am getting everybody on board in voluntary scheme and obviously each state has its own compulsions and local issues. It takes certain time for different states to come up to expectation. But frankly if you ask me, by and large all the states have performed well. It is just that different states came on board at different time and then there are a number of states which are already performing very well. Look at Gujarat. I remember one day I had got very angry at my officers. Why is Gujarat not joining the financial parameters and they tell me sir but there are no loans to join financial parameter. Total borrowing of Guajarat was some Rs 1800 crore. Andhra Pradesh has equally done a phenomenal job. Rajasthan and Haryana are two loss making states. They deserve special mention for the fastest ramp up to come out of losses. They are very aggressive admissions and to my mind, these two states that will outshine all other states. ET Now: The central assistance under the IPDS is also something which is an important part of making progress in UDAY. If I may ask you, you have got some states, you have got Uttar Pradesh, for example which has joined UDAY, they were the first issuers of the bonds as well, what sort of progress do these states like UP need to make? Piyush Goyal: The government utilisation of funds and its proper reporting and recording is the integral part of any success of any programme. Under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, I have been urging all the states to ensure their systems are well in place. There have been certain glitches in the initial period because over so many years they were so used to incomplete work and still getting paid that it is taking a little time for people to get used to strict adherence to the system but other than that I think things are alright. Varanasi the IPDS has taken off extremely well. ET Now: Let us talk about something which is very close to you; the renewable space. If I may cite, you know, recently the WTO hearing on our domestic content requirements has gone against us how do you read this in terms of impact on our domestic content requirement program and how do you see that going forward? Piyush Goyal: Right now, we have many cases on the United States for their domestic content requirement that they have been… ET Now: So you are going ahead and filing them? Piyush Goyal: We have already filed. We have filed, I think, six or eight cases against states in the United States which have been following almost similar domestic content requirement rules. That is a process that is underway, we have already filed the cases. As far as Indian interests are concerned, we may have lost this case which as I have said earlier reflects very poorly on the global effort to address the impact of climate change and mitigate this problem but be that as it may, we will continue to support Indian manufacturers, we will ensure that everybody who manufactures in India will be competitive and will be able to get good business. There are always ways to support them and we are exploring and examining jointly with Ministry of Commerce. We will shortly come out with our new proposals. Miami Dolphins Jersey
Power company brings in mobile app for meter reading
The Kolhapur zone of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has started using a mobile app developed by the power company to bring in transparency in meter-reading. The application, equipped with meter tampering system and Global Positioning System (GPS), aims to remove lacunas like human errors in the billing process. Kolhapur zone comprises Kolhapur and Sangli districts and has around 18 lakh customers. Public relation officer of Kolhapur zone Vikas Puri said the earlier system had some flaws. “Manual errors used to creep in while uploading data into the system, resulting in complaints regarding billing. The new app aims to remove such errors. The photo taken by the company employee will automatically be uploaded to the server. If internet is not available, the data will get automatically uploaded as and when the internet is available. This is important for remote areas in Kolhapur and Sangli districts where internet network is hardly available,” Puri added. The app is available on Google store, window store, and apple store. “The app is equipped with meter tampering system which will help our employees identify tampered meters. Once a meter is tagged as tampered, legal enquiry against the customer will be initiated under the Electricity Act 2003. This system will be implemented in the entire state soon,” he said. Chief engineer of company’s Kolhapur zone Shankar Shinde said, “The app was launched after carrying out primary trials, which were successful. Also, we have developed another application for consumers which they can use to register their grievances,” Shinde said. MSEDCL has 16 distributions zones in the state. Bhadup, Kalyan, Pune, Nagpur zones were selected in the first phase for introducing this application. Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Baramati, Nashik zones have been selected for second phase of the programme. Sam Darnold Jersey
Maharashtra becomes 17th state to join UDAY
Maharashtra has become the 17th state in the country to join power distribution reform scheme Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY). The state government and Maharashtra State Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) signed a pact with the centre under the scheme at the two-day state power ministers’ conference today. Under UDAY, 16 states and Union Territories had already signed the pact so far. The combined discom debt, including Central PSU dues, that would be restructured in respect of these states is around Rs 2.57 lakh crore, around 68 per cent of the total outstanding discom debt at the end of 30 September. “An overall net benefit of approximately Rs 9,725 crore would accrue to Maharashtra by opting to participate in UDAY, by way of cheaper funds, reduction in Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, interventions in energy efficiency, coal reforms etc. during the period of turnaround,” the power ministry said in a statement. As part of the scheme, the state government has committed to take over 75 per cent of the discom’s non-capex debt of around Rs 6,600 crore during the current year. The balance 25 per cent of such debt remaining with the discom would be converted into Bonds or repriced at cheaper rates. This would reduce the interest burden of the state and the discom by Rs 595 crore. The state would bring down the AT&C losses through compulsory distribution transformer metering, consumer indexing and GIS mapping of losses and feeder audit. Also, it will eliminate the gap between cost of supply of power and realisation. “The reduction in AT&C losses of MSEDCL to 14.39 per cent and the decline in transmission losses of the state to 3.75 per cent is likely to bring additional revenue of around Rs 2,200 crore during the period of turnaround,” the ministry said. As part of the scheme, the centre would also provide incentives to the discom and the state government for improving power infrastructure in the State and for further lowering the cost of power. “The central schemes such as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Power Sector Development Fund are already providing funds for improving power infrastructure in the state and additional funding would be considered under these schemes if the state meets the operational milestones,” the ministry said. The state government will also be supported through additional coal at notified prices and in case of availability, through higher capacity utilization, low cost power from NTPC and other central PSUs. Other benefits such as coal swapping, coal rationalization, correction in coal grade slippage, availability of 100 per cent washed coal would help the state to further reduce the cost of power. The state would gain around Rs 4,500 crore due to these coal reforms. Saquon Barkley Womens Jersey
Centre offers soft loan to discoms to provide power connections for Rs 100/month
The Centre has offered long-term soft loans to states to provide electricity connections in easy monthly installments to households to meet its power-for-all commitment, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said here on Friday. State-run Rural Electrification Corp will offer 10-15 year loans at low interest rates to power distribution companies to finance capital expenditure incurred by states in offering electricity connections to households at installments of Rs 100 per month, said Goyal, who is also the minister for coal, renewable energy and mines. Currently, consumers have to pay Rs 4,000-5,000 to get an electricity connection. The NDA government has committed to provide electricity to all by March 2019. Adarius Glanton Womens Jersey
Government mulling over ways to boost power demand
Lack of demand for power is a serious concern for the coal industry and the government is examining this conundrum, according to Coal Secretary Anil Swarup, who has suggested a relook on the government’s ambitious one billion tonnes of production target for fossil fuel by 2020. “For me the serious concerns are: Number one, there is hardly any demand for power. What we will do? We are planning to produce one billion tonnes of coal by 2020. What will I do with that coal,” said Coal Secretary Anil Swarup. He suggested that the need to increase this demand for power is very important because, currently, per capita consumption of energy in India is equal to the per capita consumption of the US in the late 90’s. “The demand has to go up,” he said. In fact, in the current financial year, coal production has had to ensure that coal does catch fire at the pit heads, where much of the stock lies unused. “On 31st of March this year India had surplus of 56 million tonnes (MT) as inventory at pitheads and around 32 MT at the power plants, as on March 31, 2016. “I would rather be in this situation than what I was in a couple of years ago, when everyone was running around… to reach out coal to these power plants. I am glad we are where we are,” said Swarup. The government’s focus has now shifted to the quality of coal, he said. State-owned Coal India (CIL) which amounts for over 80% of domestic coal production is eyeing one billion tonnes of coal production by 2020. Colin McDonald Womens Jersey