Chandigarh, Aug. 29 -- Former Haryana finance minister Sampat Singh on Friday criticised the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC), accusing it of acting as a rubber stamp for private interests.

Condemning HERC's "systemic abdication of its statutory powers" in appointing a "hand-picked" three-member expert committee to process the parallel distribution licence application of a private player, Eleven Power Private Limited, Sampat Singh said the entire exercise was an institutional farce engineered to serve corporate cronies at the cost of the public exchequer and rural consumers.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader, in a statement, questioned the need to appoint an expert committee to examine Eleven Power's licence bid,...