Powering reforms

Govt should have learnt from history of open access

The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, was immediately sent to the Standing Committee on Energy for closer scrutiny and debate. This comes at a time when the Union government is also launching yet another scheme to bail out troubled state electricity utilities. And yet there are fears that the Bill will die in committee, given that Opposition parties and states ruled by parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party have expressed strong concern about amendments that they believe infringe upon the states’ rights to regulate electricity supply and pricing. There are many provisions in