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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy on Friday sought stakeholders' comments on the Electricity Amendment Bill, 2022, which it is currently scrutinising, within the next 15 days.
The panel, which is headed by BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, had held its first meeting to discuss the bill on December 1. The bill had been referred to the panel by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on November 21. The committee has been given three months to finalise a report on the bill. The bill has received a lot of opposition from farmers and political parties, who have alleged that well-off consumers would opt for private distributors at the expense of state-owned distribution companies, as per its provisions. The bill seeks to facilitate usage of distribution networks by any entity which gets a distribution licence. This would allow consumers to choose services of any power supplier from among several players operating in a particular region, just like customers have the choice to select mobile networks. When Power Minister R.K. Singh had introduced the bill in Lok Sabha on August 8 during the Monsoon session, it had received a lot of protests from opposition parties led by the Congress. They had sought greater discussion with states on various provisions of the bill, before it is brought to Parliament. The bill was referred to the standing committee on the same day. --IANS ans/vd ( 243 Words) 2022-12-09-19:26:03 (IANS)
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