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Why One Of India’s Biggest EB Donors Is A Touchy Topic In Bhiwandi

Torrent Power supplies power to Bhiwandi near Mumbai, and powerloom owners allege that power bills have doubled or tripled since the franchise was brought in, which has dealt a blow to the Rs 10,000 crore powerloom industry here.

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Bhiwandi Powerloom owner

Prabhakar Ahluwalia, a powerloom owner in Bhiwandi, says one of the reasons the industry has suffered over the years is the high power bills of Torrent Power, a charge the company denies | Photo courtesy: Tanvi Deshpande, IndiaSpend

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It is just another summer day in the dimly lit, sweltering powerloom unit belonging to 52-year-old Prabhakar Aluwala in Bhiwandi. Two labourers wearing vests move swiftly from one loom to the next to make the necessary turns to keep the yarn spinning without getting disturbed and ruining the design. They are manufacturing the grey cotton used for making sarees, as part of an earlier contract. The labourers don’t have time to pose for pictures. There is hardly any room to take any in the unit anyway; in that cramped space, not being careful can lead to injury of the kind one saw in old Hindi movies based on Mumbai’s working class.

The unit is working at half capacity as the market is slow right now. While ups and downs have always been part of the business, Aluwala does not feel motivated to stay in this business any longer, let alone encourage his 24-year-old son to join it.

One of the reasons, he says, is a company that is also one of India’s biggest donors to political parties via electoral bonds. Bhiwandi is supplied with power by Torrent Power Ltd (TPL), a distribution franchise of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Limited (MSEDCL), since 2007. Powerloom owners like Aluwala and public representatives allege that power bills have doubled or tripled since the franchise was brought in, and this in turn has dealt a massive blow to the Rs 10,000-crore powerloom industry. Around 30-40% powerlooms have shut over the years.

Torrent Power purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 106.5 crore between 2019 and 2024. Of these, bonds worth Rs 76 crore were encashed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rs 17 crore by the Congress, Rs 3.5 crore by the Nationalist Congress Party, Rs 3 crore by the Shiv Sena and the rest by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Data released by the Election Commission of India show that one tranche of bonds worth Rs 7.5 crore was purchased by TPL in May 2019 and encashed by the BJP three days later. The same month, the Maharashtra government ordered the city municipal corporation not to recover property tax worth Rs 285 crore (including interest and fine) from Torrent Power. The reason given was that such recovery of property tax would lead to higher tariffs and was not in the interest of citizens. A Shiv Sena-BJP alliance was running the state government at the time.

Originally a pharmaceutical company, the Rs 21,000-crore Torrent group’s power company now has a portfolio of generation, transmission and distribution of power. Torrent Power has a capacity of 4,110 MW with a mix of coal-based, gas-based, and renewable power plants.

In March 2024, TPL announced that it has been given a Letter of Award (LOA) from MSEDCL for the establishment of a 306 MW grid-connected solar project in Nasik district. The project's estimated cost is Rs 1,540 crore.

TPL’s only purchase of electoral bonds in 2024, worth Rs 25 crore, was encashed by the BJP in January 2024. BJP is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra state, and the energy portfolio is held by Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Back in the city, powerloom owners, labourers and ancillary businesses stare at a dwindling industry that might be breathing its last. And this, critics say, could be deliberate.

“They want to take Bhiwandi’s powerloom industry to Surat,” alleged Shiv Sena UBT’s former legislator from Bhiwandi East constituency Rupesh Mhatre, “since Surat has a large garment market and was also one of Torrent’s distribution circles.”

Representatives of Torrent Power that IndiaSpend spoke to denied any inflation of power bills. They said their meters have been checked and found accurate when tested against other meters; they blamed

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