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Jaipur
based advocacy organization; Consumer Unity &
Trust Society (CUTS) received this year’s
prestigious India Power Award for recognition for
Social and Community Impact at Grassroots, at a
high level function held in New Delhi. CUTS
Secretary General Shri Pradeep Mehta received the
award.
The
Council of Power Utilities and KW Conferences Pvt.
Ltd. have initiated a visible and credible
platform – the INDIA POWER AWARDS - to recognize
the achievements and contributions of
organizations and individuals in this sector. The
INDIA POWER AWARDS 2008 are being envisaged as a
systematic and methodical approach to recognizing
excellence in power and energy development. The
award is given to CUTS for its outstanding
networking and various outreach activities towards
consumer empowerment by The Council of Power
Utilities in association with KW Conferences and
sponsored by Crompton Greaves, Mint and Mercados
Energy Markets (Asia).
CUTS
is having a long history in working in the power
sector in Rajasthan. When the regulatory reforms
was initiated in the power sector, welcoming this
move, CUTS started educating the consumer groups
to understand about the reforms and to participate
effectively in the functioning of the regulatory
bodies. While reforms were introduced in the
beginning of 2000, it was felt that there was no
institutional mechanism in place to represent the
consumers at large, and their concerns, in
organised and professional manner.
To
fill the vacuum, CUTS came forward and
conceptualised and initiated the programme
‘Involvement of consumers in power sector reforms
in Rajasthan’ in all the districts of Rajasthan in
August 2001 in partnership with Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung (FES). The major objective of the
programme, among others, was to facilitate active
involvement of consumers in power sector reforms.
This model, which is known as ‘CUTS-FES model’ is
widely recognised as innovative and comprehensive
approach towards enhancing the effectiveness of
consumers’ voice and improving their participation
in the reform process.
Besides this, CUTS was also instrumental in making
the electricity distribution companies to come up
with the Consumer Charter and has been involved in
sending the comments on tariff structure and
different policy related issues to the regulatory
commission. Presently, CUTS is a member of the
advisory committee of Central Electricity
Regulatory Commission (CERC) and Rajasthan
Electricity Regulatory Commission. CUTS is also
presently implementing a ‘Project for Capacity
Building on Electricity Reforms in Bangladesh,
Nepal and India’ in association with NORAD, so
that power sector consumers can effectively
intervene in ongoing reform process to safeguard
their interests.
Earlier, the World Bank has identified the
‘CUTS-FES Model’ as one of the best practice in
the entire country to enhance the consumer voice
and strengthen client power to ensure better
service delivery to people. Independent research
and documentation of this initiative was done for
wide scale dissemination
For
further information please contact:
George
Cheriyan, gc@cuts.org +919829285930
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