CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar lauded the efforts of the power utilities and Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) on the account of power reforms as well as revenue generation from power in the state.
The chief minister was addressing a regional conclave of Electricity Regulatory Commissions of the Northern States on Thursday evening to mark the Silver Jubilee anniversary celebrations of HERC.
Khattar underlined the importance of power sector PSUs in state finances and dwelt at length on the state government's policies that have made adequate power available to the electricity consumers of the state including at concessional rates to the agriculture sector tube-wells, food processing organizations, MSME as well as small domestic consumers. He particularly appreciated the hard work put in by Naresh Sardana, HERC Member who was then Director Technical,in making his flagship schemes like Mahara Gaon Jagmag Gaon a huge success.
The chairman of the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and ERC Goa, Members of Punjab ERC and J&K and Ladakh and UTs attended the conclave. The senior officers of the HERC also took part in the conclave
HERC head RK Pachnanda highlighted the role of the HERC in promoting and protecting consumers' interests through the enactment of various consumer centric regulations like guaranteed standards of performance, speedy disposal of consumers’ grievances, larger integration of renewable sources of energy, procurement of power through competitive bidding.
While other member Naresh Sardana too highlighted the grievance redressal system of the regulator. Besides this, prominent among those who spoke from Haryana included DGP Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor who had also served as administrative secretary of power before joining ACB and P K Das, the chairman cum managing director of Haryana Power Utilities.
The Chairman of HPERC DK Sharma highlighted the role of his Commission in protecting consumers' interests which included remote monitoring of the timelines of services and provide compensation automatically for at least six identified consumer services to begin with, provision to set up operation circle level Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum (CGRF) in Discoms and encouraging public interaction program for the electricity consumers as well as operationalization of consumer advocacy cell for education and generating awareness amongst consumers of rural and remote areas.
Others who spoke included B.N. Sharma, Chairman Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission, Alok Tandon, Chairman (Goa and UTs), Arvind Kumar, Chairman UPSERC, Member (Law) Punjab Electricity Regulatory Commission Paramjeet Singh and Ajay Gupta, Member JERC (J&K and Ladakh (UT), spoke about the transmission and distribution loss reduction trajectory, roll out of smart meters, Revamp Distribution Sector Scheme and the notification of consumer service related regulations.
