New Delhi, May 3: India has a brand new government and squad of cabinet ministers. This new team is taking many decisions for the welfare of the country. Now, Government is planning of merging the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the Ministry of Power (MOP) to form one integrated Ministry if a suggestion for same finds favor within the government.
Newly-appointed Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh, confirmed that such a suggestion has been received, but said that there has not been enough deliberation for it to become a proposal within the government.
He said, “Certain suggestions have been made that the two (MNRE and MOP) should actually be one ministry as is there in most countries. (The idea is) to have one ministry which looks at all energy. So we are examining that, but it hasn’t taken the form of a proposal as yet”.
The idea was also discussed during the recently held ‘Chintan Baithak’ (brainstorming session) between government officials and stakeholders from the renewable energy sector.
A senior officer of Renewable energy said, “The merger of the two ministries makes sense in the light of balancing of power and common transmission infrastructure needs that renewable energy and conventional energy generators share. The consumer really does not know whether the Power Distribution Company (Discom) is supplying them thermal or renewable energy”.
It has been stressed that the merger of two ministries would aid the balance of power and common transmission infrastructure needs which the renewable energy and conventional energy share, given the consumer cannot decipher what kind of electrical energy is being provided to them by the Power Distribution Company (Discom).