Letter from the Executive Board,

Greetings and Salutations Delegates,

JAI HIND,
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to the DISMUN, 2021 and especially to this
special session of the Punjab Legislative Assembly.

As it is very aptly said, desperate times call for desperate measures, thus this pandemic has led
us to convene through video conferencing to look in to the migrant workers crisis and the
economic meltdown. I am looking forward to fruitful and exciting debate. This is a unique
committee in itself and therefore will have certain differences in rules and procedures. Although
it is an Indian committee at its core, therefore certain liberties regarding procedures can be
taken but NEVER with parliamentary courtesy. The very basis and core of the committee is to
serve the Indian people and the Indian constitution
The agenda in front of us is extremely interesting as the agenda are pertinent to every single
constituent of the Indian state. Pandemics and their dark history have taught the human race
and civilisation to stay united and, we, as the cradle of human civilisation need to lead the world
by example.
This Guide is by no means the end of research; however neither am I looking for discussions
based entirely on extensive reading. I’d appreciate if there’s an argument in your presentation
that you substantiate with facts that you read and in such times, showing extensive analysis and
critical thinking is highly welcomed. That makes for an excellent MUN performance. Unfettered,
in the face of crisis has been the natural instinct of the Indian government and irrespective of
ideology and style of governance we have pulled great victories on our fears.
Now proceed to read the guide, identify your areas that need attention, pick up substantiating
figures, facts and concepts, check for legal applicability and viability and Voila.

Happy Researching,
Feel free to contact me in case of any doubt.
Your Humble Servants

(Moderator)

(Deputy Moderator)

As temperatures shoot up across Punjab where paddy transplantation is also in full swing, the
state is facing an acute shortage of power. Even as the agriculture sector is not getting its
promised eight-hour power supply, domestic consumer have been left to sweat it out because of
long power cuts.

As the temperatures have soared and it is peak season for paddy transplantation, the demand
for power has touched 14,225 MW. However, but the power utility has only been able to supply
12,800 MW. The gap of 1,425 MW has triggered power cuts of up to 14 hours in the domestic
sector.
Now industries has been shut down for two days to ensure that the agriculture sector gets
enough supply and the precious window of transplanting paddy is not lost. But the fact of the
matter remains that closing down of industries for giving temporary power diversion to
agriculture is not a healthy public policy measure especially for a state like Punjab which has
both an agricultural as well as industrial backbone.
In a recent interview senior officers of the PSPCL claimed that the electricity situation is
deteriorating because of other ancillary and auxiliary issues like climate change as more power
now is needed to pull out water from the bore Wells which is also affecting the water supply in
semi urban and semi rural setups.
A few days ago, farmers and domestic consumers had hit the streets in protest. Industry bodies
are complaining how this is the last thing they wanted in the middle of a pandemic which has
badly hit all businesses.
Among the first decisions taken by the present Congress government in Punjab was to shut
down the government-run thermal plant in Bathinda and two units of another government
thermal plant in Ropar with a combined capacity of 880 MW. After shutting down of these
plants, no alternate arrangements were made to make up for the production loss. this is
especially leading to a lot of long hours of packets in South Western and Southern Punjab which
is adding to the woes created by by a illegal measures like line loss and usage of faulty disused
meters. Also a unit of private TSPL Power Plant at Talwandi Sabo has been shut since March 8
for want of repairs. The unit supplies 660 MW. This is now further affecting power generation in
Central and eastern Punjab.
According to tue NITI AAYOG, Punjab needs special measures for seperation of electric meters
for agriculture, industrial and private usages. Especially in the middle of the pandemic there has
been multifold increase in the demand of electricity especially in the urban and semi urban
centres keeping in mind the hub of all Central activity now being people's home because of the
restrictions imposed by the lockdown.
The Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCL) has been the primary power distributor in
the state ye it is like all other public sector undertakings in India which are loss-making
inefficient, bureaucratic and always face some kind of fund crunch to fulfill their organisational
endeavours.

Politics.
The second and the third largest political parties having an electoral presence in the state which
are Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) have made a lot of demands
privatize ans disinvest the PSPCL and rather have private players boost the generation of
electricity.
The Aam Aadmi Part (AAP) which is also so the principal opposition party in the house is
constantly demanded that some standard operating procedures be set in place to calculate
electricity bills as they have been constant irregularities in the calculation of bills. The national
convener of AP and the incumbent Delhi Chief Minister Mr Arvind Kejriwal in a public rally near
Bhatinda said that if his party was to come in the next year post the assembly elections there
would be an implementation of the DELHI model of power distribution where every district gets
24/7 power supply.
There were also some rumblings in the ruling party itself when dissenting Congress leader and
the incumbent PCC chief Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu publicly called out the Chief Minister captain
Amarinder Singh of creating a feudal system when it came to the distribution of power which he
also termed as a power roster system. Allegations have been made that there is in equal
generation of power and districts which belong to senior leaders of the Congress Party for their
assembly constituencies get more power as compared to those of the opposition.

Questions to Ponder upon

1. With elections round the corner how apolitical is the debate on power outages?
2. How technology can be used to solve the issue by pushing the debate on renewable
energy sources?
3. Is it right to privatize under performing PSUs to bring them up to date and on speed to
fulfill the requirements of the state?