Maiden Speech & The Energy Conservation

Maiden Speech & The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010

Hon. Vice-Chairman and respected Members, I rise to speak on the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010. Since this is my maiden speech, I would request you to allow me a few minutes to introduce myself before speaking on the Bill.

Sir, I am humbled by the great privilege of being a Member of this august House, which has seen stalwarts among its Members like Prof. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Prof. N.G. Ranga, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, hon. Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, and our present Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. I pay tributes to Shri N.T. Rama Raogaru, founder of the Telugu Desam Party, for providing leadership and identity to the people of Andhra Pradesh. I fondly remember his encouragement to the young people from all sections of the society. I thank Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, our party President and the legislators of Andhra Pradesh who have elected me to this august House.

Sir, this august body, where Members are drawn from diverse fields of arts, politics, eminent professionals, academics and industry, makes it unique in our great democracy. I come from an industrial background, which I had started at an early age. After doing my Post Graduation in Engineering in 1986, I had started a small-scale industry. This grew into a group of industries which presently employs 6000 people, known as the Sujana Group of Companies. The name 'Sujana', I am proud to say, was coined out of the first few letters of the names of my beloved parents, Shrimati Susheela and Shri Janardhana Rao. My grandfather, an IPS officer, retired from the CBI and my father retired as Superintending Engineer in the Government of Andhra Pradesh. My great grandfathers were agriculturists. So, the evolution of my career is in rural areas and, therefore, I am blessed with exposure to all major spheres of the society.

Sir, the Preamble to our Constitution says, "We the people of India give this country to ourselves..". To me the word "We" means all the people of India. I stressed on the word "all" because in the nature, the jungle law that rules is the survival of the cleverest; in the organized and civilized society, the law has to protect the meek from the strong. This was stated, over and over again, by the framers of our Constitution. The Preamble and articles 38(1), 38(2), 39B, 39C and 46 talk about reduction of inequality in income and giving equal access to resources of the country. Just as a blind man cannot thank us for giving him a mirror, the poor man cannot thank us for not implementing the equality, the mandate of the Constitution. Thus, the essence of the Constitution is equality to be achieved through a conscious attempt to help those in society, who cannot help themselves. A fine example of this is the philanthropic efforts of successful business people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. I commend the cause of charity in its full sense espoused by them. Perhaps, they believe that what they give,they have, and what they keep, they lose. These kind-hearted men are practising what Gandhiji said that rich people are the custodians and trustees of their wealth for the benefit of the poor. Since such kind hearts are not many, I would vote for a very visible hand of the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary to make laws and policies of affirmative action and vigorously implement them.

Sir, there is a State sanction behind every citizen's security and legitimate earning. The State, in turn, gets its authority and legitimacy from the citizens through the social contract concept developed by political philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and Locke and Rousseau. In a democratic country like India, periodic elections to State and Centre constitute the social contract and needs to be continuously strengthened.

Sir, while appreciating the efforts that are being made for rationalization of direct and indirect taxes, a time has come to restore estate duty which would be a step towards reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. Sir, for quite some time, I thought, eliminating poverty and creating wealth are the same. But, on being more matured, I realised that the creation of wealth will necessarily not eliminate poverty or reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.

Sir, the Government works for making a difference in the living standard of the people. It means that ensuring roti, kapda and makaan alone is not sufficient. Ensuring only them implies that we are not elevating the general...

 Sir, while ensuring the above, we should target good health, education and creation of individual opportunity as our objective and guiding principle for governance.

Sir, having dwelt upon my political philosophy, I now move forward to discuss about the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2010. The energy conservation as we all know is a wide topic that most of our hon. Members spoke. It broadly encompasses efficient utilization of electricity and fossil fuels. The current Bill in discussion appears to only cover the energy efficiency measures with a view to conserve power. Although it is important to address this issue, it would be desirable to adopt a holistic approach to include conservation of fuels and ecosystems.

Sir, the current installed capacity of 1,31,000 MW is required to be increased to about 9,50,000 MW by 2030 as stated by the hon. Prime Minister recently. To create this gigantic future electricity generating capacity, it is estimated that a massive Rs.60,000 billion investment is required. However, as the ho. Members are aware, this expenditure can be far from reality considering several Budgetary constraints. Therefore, I am of the opinion that part of this problem can be addressed through strict adherence to the measures proposed to be implemented through this Bill.

Sir, having gone through the proposed amendments, I suggest the following changes. Section 14(C) of the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, after the proposed amendment prohibits issuance of notification within six months in normal cases and one year in special circumstances. Even after the proposed amendment, there is no obligation on the part of the Government to issue notification prohibiting the use of energy inefficient equipment after six months or one year, as the case may be. Once a product is notified under section 14 (A), any equipment not conforming to prescribed norms should be automatically prohibited from sale, import, etc., after six months or one year, as the case may be.

A new section 14(A) is proposed to be inserted. As per this proposed section, in case there is a saving of energy by the designated consumer, an energy saving certificate would be issued. This can be sold to a designated consumer who is not complying with the energy consumption norms. There may be a case that for reasons, a designated consumer may not be in a position to encash these certificates. Therefore, a clear mechanism may be put in place to enable immediate encashment of such certificates.

In addition to the above suggestions, I propose the consideration of the following steps to make the initiatives of the Government for energy conservation more effective and meaningful. (1) target the sector where there is a scope for energy savings (2) Accelerate and incentivize indigenous R&D for developing energy efficient appliances and systems and provide fiscal incentives to industries established to absorb such energy efficient technologies; (3) Conversion of inefficient AC agricultural water pumps to either more efficient AC pump sets or DC pumps using permanent magnets; (4) All street, municipal and Government installation to switch to LED lighting mandatorily, in a phased manner, like in the United States of America, which has been following it; (5) To meet rural lighting requirements with solar and LED light combination which is cheaper and more sustainable, and the technology is fully proven, compared to current solar/CFL combinations; (6) Include use of LED luminaries in Lamp Bachat Yojana Scheme; (7) Reroute the perennial kerosene, MNRE subsidies towards promotion of sustainable energy efficient systems; (8) Weak aluminium conductors to be recycled/re-conducted or replaced to reduce the transmission and distribution losses; (9) Strictly enforce energy efficient norms and prohibit sale/import of energy inefficient devices; and (10) As is the adage, ‘power saved is power generated’, there should be a provision to incentivize virtual energy generation system.

Sir, with the above suggestions, I conclude my maiden speech and am grateful to the Chair and the hon. Members of the House for providing me this opportunity. Thank you very much, Sir.