Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put on hold the draft of the New Electricity Bill, which was released by the Centre on 15 April.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, a copy of which was released to the media here, he said the Bill is against federalism of the country and would take away State’s rights.
It is said the Bill proposes to provide the subsidy directly to farmers and domestic consumers, who get first 100 units free, but charge the power consumed by them.
In a statement earlier, DMK president M K Stalin said, “As per the Bill, states will lose power to appoint officials of the state electricity regulatory commissions. Above all, the Bill wants to set up an electricity contract enforcement authority having power of a civil court to settle disputes related to power purchase between discoms and generating companies.”