Withdraw power Bill, farm laws: AIPEF

Lucknow: The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Thursday said that it supports the farmers' movement against the Centre's new farm laws and also demanded that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, be withdrawn.

The organisation called for scrapping of the farm laws, alleging these would introduce privatisation at every step and that this was not in the interest of the country. "In the draft amendment of Electricity Act 2003 through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the AlPEF had strongly opposed the proposal of the government to eliminate subsidy in electricity tariff.

While the government had proposed the procedure of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), this was not agreed to by AIPEF as it amounts to snatching the subsidy of power to farmers," Chairman AIPEF Shailendra Dubey said.

The proposal of DBT would lead to huge economic hardship to farmers who would have to pay electricity bills of their tube wells while there was no guarantee of matching DBT payments by the state governments, he said. The proposal of DBT had been strongly objected by most of the states, Dubey claimed.

The present move of the government to introduce and implement the farm laws is a part of the overall strategy to introduce privatisation at every step which is not in the larger interest of the country, the AIPEF said.

The AIPEF while giving full support to the struggle of farmers across the country, has asked the government to withdraw or scrap the farm laws recently passed in parliament.

In another development, Akali Dal stalwart and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday returned his Padma Vibhushan award in protest against the Centre's new farm laws. In a separate announcement, dissident Akali leader and Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa also said he will return the Padma Bhushan conferred on him last year.

Earlier, some former Punjab sportsmen too have threatened to return their awards. Badal's move follows over two months after his Shiromani Akali Dal pulled out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, protesting against the three laws which deregulate the sale of crops.

His daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal had also quit the Union Cabinet as protests over the farm bills erupted in Punjab, where the party is in opposition. "I am who I am because of the people, especially the common farmer. Today when he has lost more than his honour, I see no point in holding on to the Padma Vibhushan honour", Badal said in his letter to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Rebel SAD (Democratic) leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said farmers including the elderly and women are staying put at the Delhi borders. "We are also the sons of farmers. What will we do with the award? We stand shoulder to shoulder with them." Badal received the Padma Vibhushan award, the country second-highest civilian honour in 2015.

An SAD statement said Parkash Singh Badal returned the Padma Vibhushan in protest against the "betrayal of farmers" by the central government, and the "shocking indifference and contempt" with which it is treating the "peaceful and democratic agitation of the farmers".

Thousands of farmers from the state are now camping at the border of Delhi, demanding the repeal of the three Acts that they say will lead to the phasing out of the minimum support price (MSP) system, which the government denies. In a letter e-mailed to the President Thursday morning, Badal said, "After Panthic ideals of peace and communal harmony, farmers have been my second religious passion."