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Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan

Design and Launch Workshop

August 20-21^st 2001, Jaipur India  

Event

Introduction

Project Background & Objectives

Workshop

Event Report

Introduction

In association with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German Development Agency, CUTS Centre for Consumer Action Research & Training (CART) has launched a three-year project, titled `Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan’. 

  Project background & Objectives

The project is aimed to generate awareness and sensitise all stakeholders and end users on the power reform process, with the intent of ensuring their active involvement and participation in the process. 

The project would also aim at exploring the possibilities of collective participation in the power distribution and generation process through setting up of co-operative societies, for distribution; co-operative generating stations using bio-mass or other alternative energy sources etc.

The Broad immediate objectives of the programme are

o       Consumers, especially the rural consumers are sufficiently educated about their rights

o       There is a greater involvement of consumers – who would be more vocal and participatory in their approach

o       Consumers have a greater awareness of the positives and benefits of reforms and their role to make the reforms achieve what it is meant to do.

o       Increased awareness of alternate energy source

o       Greater degree of sensitivity vis-à-vis the consumers from the eyes of the utility providers, regulators and other stake holders

o       Understanding by the utility providers, regulators and others that reforms does not mean unbundling & privatisation, but it means improvement in quality of service – quantity and quality.  Unbundling and privatisation are only means to the end.

o       Sensitised government machinery at the state, district and block levels, resulting in greater involvement of public in the governance process.

o       Greater involvement of political leaders at all levels in the reform process – some degree of unanimity that reforms does not just mean unbundling and privatisation but improvement in quality of services, and they all work in unison to achieve this.

The broad long term objectives include:

o       Improvement in power supply (deficit) & increased use of alternate energy source such as renewable energy etc.

o       Community involvement and participation in power distribution, collection of dues etc.

o       Drastic reduction in power theft

o       Improvement in quality of services

o       Greater level of electrification, especially rural electrification, either through grid or through alternate energy source

Launch/Design Workshop

The Launch/Design workshop brought energy experts, utility providers, representatives of government, consumers organisations, media, polity, and the common consumers under one roof to chalk out the agenda for the three years of the project.

The outcome of the launch/design workshop would be in the form of a road map for the joint project for the next three year.

Event Report

“Consumers Involvement is a must for success of the Power Reforms’ said Dr. Chandrabhan, Power Minister of the state.

“Power reforms cannot achieve their end objectives without active participation of consumers and a greater consensus among political parties on the reforms’, are the views expressed by Dr. Chandrabhan, Minister for Industry and Energy, Rajasthan, while inaugurating the launch workshop of the project, `Involvement of Consumers in Power Sector Reforms in Rajasthan’, taken up by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), India at Hotel Mansingh.

The Minister compared the power reforms to any social reforms and stressed on the need for providing adequate time for the reform process to achieve its objectives, before jumping to any conclusions that the reform process is a failure.  He added that on introduction of reforms, one cannot expect dramatic results overnight.  In this regard, he mentioned that Rajasthan, while implementing the reform process had kept the learnings from mistakes committed in other reform states such as Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.  Further stressing on the need for active participation of consumers in the process, he appreciated the efforts being made by CUTS & FES in involving people in the reform process and assured organisations of all support from the government to achieve this objective.

He further stated that the project taken up by CUTS & FES is something which needs to be taken up by the government and also informed the gathering that his government was planning to organise a series of workshops to educate and inform the people on various issues vis-à-vis reforms, at the block and district levels. 

A very noteworthy remark made by the Minister was with reference to the role played by political parties especially the party in opposition. He noted with examples the anti-reform stance of various opposition parties in public, which is contrary to what their actual stance is. 

Shri. Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS, highlighted the role of the organisation in the ongoing reform process in the state and mentioned that CUTS has always been raising its voice in favour of protecting the consumers interest.  In response to the statement made by the Minister, vis-à-vis his government’s plan to organise workshops to educate the people on the power sector at block and district levels, Mr. Mehta offered the services of the organisation and its network to organise such contact programmes at the grassroot levels.

Dr. Manfred Haack, resident Representative, FES in his welcome address, emphasised the need to utilise the vast renewable energy potential of the state.  He also made it a point to welcome three women participants, stating that `it is remarkable that three women have made their presence in an environment which is full of men power’.

Shri. Ghanshyam Tiwari, Former Energy Minster, Rajasthan, constructively criticised the reform process for not involving consumers in the decision-making and stressed upon having a holistic approach about power sector at national level rather than looking at it as a state subject. He felt that while the reform process was actually good for the country, it depended on the model of reforms followed and the methodology of implementation.  He opined that his opposition to the reform process followed in Rajasthan was primarily due to the fact that Rajasthan was also adopting the Orissa model, which has proved to be a failure.  He opined that states tend to follow models blindly without looking into the lessons learnt from its implementation elsewhere in the country.

Shri. Arun Kumar, Chairman, Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission, congratulated CUTS-FES for coming up with a very relevant programme and that too at the right time, the transition period.

Dr. Gajendra Haldea, Chief Advisor, National Council for Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, presented a strong case for a change in the reforms model to be followed and implemented to ensure the success of the reform process.  He felt that any reforms model will have to be consumer centric.  In his presented he strongly argued for opening up of markets, creation of a demand of power and introduction of competition in the system, stating that only such a system would ensure that the reform process achieves its ultimate objective, improvement in quality of power and services at the most reasonable and fair price.

Shri. C. S. Rajan, Secretary to the government of Rajasthan, Ministry of Energy, presented the power scenario of the state.  In his address, he highlighted some of the improvements brought in to the system in the past six months. 

Shri. H. D. Charan, Chairman and Managing Director, Jodhpur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, in his address emphasised on the need for having greater people’s participation in the process and to create an atmosphere, where people feel that the system is theirs. 

A number of floor interventions were made, the prominent speakers among them were Dr. Ashok Singhvi, Chairman and Managing Director, Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited, Shri. P. N. Bhandari, Former Chairman, Rajasthan Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited, representatives from consumer organisations from the states of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.

Representatives of grassroot consumer organisations, in a very lucid manner, presented their views on the power scenario and what they expected out of the system. 

The first year of the project would identify villages which would be converted into a model village – a model village will have 100% household electrification, 100% metering, 100% energy efficiency, 100% collection and 0% thefts.  This would be done with the involvement of all the stakeholders (consumers) in the village.

These recommendations have been accepted by all the people present at the workshop and were endorsed by the experts.  Shri. Ailwadi in his closing address was all praise for the programme drawn for the year and expressed his hope that CUTS would try and replicate its work in other states, especially Haryana, where there is absolutely no consumer organisation participating in the reform process.

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