NATIONAL ENERGY CONSERVATION DAY

ADDRESS OF SHRI P.M. SAYEED UNION MINISTER OF POWER

VIGYAN BHAWAN (NEW DELHI)

14.12.2004 (09-30 HRS)

Respected Prime Minister, Dr. Man Mohan Singh Ji,

Honble Minister of Communications and IT, Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Honble Minister of State of Communications, Dr. Shakeel Ahmad,

Shri R.V.Shahi, Shri Ganesan, Award Winners, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, We are grateful to the Honble Prime Minister to have accepted our invitation and spared his valuable time out of his busy schedule. This reflects the concern of the Honble Prime Minister about the electricity sector in general and on conservation in particular.

Let me at the outset congratulate the winners of the National Energy Conservation Awards, 2004. I am happy to inform all of you that the industrial units, which have participated in this award scheme of the Ministry of Power for the past six years, have been collectively able to save almost 615 MW of electric power. This shows the results that can be achieved by a few enlightened units. One can imagine the results if most of our industrial units follow the lead given and take up Energy Conservation in right earnest.

Conserving or saving energy is a national cause. And that is the message we want to send out. I am extremely grateful to my young and energetic colleague, the Honble Minister of Communication & IT who appreciated the need and necessity of spreading this message and agreed to bring out a postage stamp on the same. All of us will have to join hands and work in unison so as to make India an energy efficient economy and society. Energy efficiency will lead to benefits in terms of competitiveness and a better share of the international market. Energy saving requires not just efficient equipment, appliances and gadgets, but most importantly it requires a change in the habits and attitude we have towards energy in general and electricity in particular.

In this context creating public awareness becomes a matter of primary importance. Definitely in this case knowledge is power! The habit of conservation is best introduced and inculcated at the school age. Children it has been seen are the best agents of change and in this case we need to equip them with the information and knowledge on energy conservation. The introduction of energy conservation as a subject in the school curricula would go a long way in spreading the message of energy conservation throughout the country.

Focusing on this important issue of awareness, my Ministry is launching the Energy Conservation Campaign, encompassing not just schools and school children but different segments of our society. We would seek the wholehearted support of all in making a success of this campaign. I may mention here that the campaign is a dynamic one and would definitely grow in content and form as more and more people, states, industries, institutions and organizations join.

Each one of us has a role to play in promoting energy efficiency and conservation. Obviously, Government alone cannot do this by itself. All of us need to make a conscious effort to embrace energy efficient practices and products. Building owners, architects and engineers have a special responsibility for incorporating energy efficiency measures when designing and developing new structures. At the same time we must review the structures we have to see that such measures that help conserve energy are put in place at the earliest. I would also take this opportunity to appeal to all research scientists, manufacturers and suppliers to promote new and innovative energy saving products, methods and processes.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has adopted a selfregulation and market based approach in promoting efficient use of energy. A self-regulating mechanism casts more responsibility on the stakeholders and they tend to make more efforts to comply with legal provisions, particularly when they see that it helps business and profitability. We feel that presently this is the correct approach and would lead to more efficient use of energy. With these words, once again expressing our gratitude to the respected Pradhan Mantri ji, I conclude and extend my best wishes to the winners of National Energy Conservation Awards, 2004. Thank you. Jai Hind.