Chandigarh, August 8, 2022 (Yes Punjab News)
Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked union power minister R K Singh to list minutes of meetings held with State governments and Kisan Unions on the Electricity Amendment Bill while asserting that the Agriculture ministry had given a written assurance to Kisan Unions that the Bill would be introduced only after discussions with all stakeholders were completed.
Asserting that no discussions had been held with the stakeholders despite a solemn sovereign promise given to them, Mrs Harsimarat Badal said the NDA government had reneged on the written assurance on the Electricity Amendment Bill in the same way it had gone back on its promise to form a Committee to secure minimum support price (MSP) as a right for farmers of the country.
Accusing the power minister of misleading parliament by claiming that the union government had not given any written assurance to the Kisan Unions, Mrs Badal showed a letter written in this regard on December 9, 2021 to both the Speaker as well as the minister. “Governments cannot work in silos. Assurances given by one ministry cannot be exclusive to that ministry alone and the Power ministry cannot claim ignorance of the same”. Mrs Badal also took the power minister head when the latter claimed that the government had talked to stakeholders by asking him to disclose suggestions made by Kisan Unions if any.
Taking a strong stand on the issue, Mrs Badal the centre was discriminating against farmers and people at large by going back on its words and that it wanted to thrust the Electricity Amendment Bill on them in the same manner in which it had passed the three farm ordinances without holding any discussion with the stake holders.
Later while talking to newsmen outside parliament, the Bathinda MP said the manner in which the three farm ordinances had been bulldozed through parliament had led to a sustained agitation by farmers on the borders of Delhi in which eight hundred farmers were martyred before the government backtracked and admitted its fault. She said like in the case of the three farm laws, people were apprehensive that the Electricity Amendment Bill would hand over the power sector to corporate houses to the detriment of farmers and disadvantaged sections of society. “There is also the question of federal rights of States being usurped by the Bill which will undermine their authority”, she said while asserting that all these issues needed to be threshed before the Bill was put up in parliament.
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