4 days power engineers, employees Satyagrah against Electricity bill 2021 begins at New Delhi
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
On the call of National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE) hundreds of Power Employees & Engineers started four day Satyagrah at Jantar Mantar today against unilateral announcement of Central Govt to pass Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 in current monsoon session of Parliament.
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation(AIPEF), Prashant Chaudhary, Secretary General, Electricity Employees Federation of India(EEFI), R K Trivedi President & Abhimanyu Dhankad Secretary General Secretary of All India Federation of Power Diploma Engineers(AIFOPDE), K Ashok Rao Patron AIPEF, Kuldeep Kumar, Secretary General,Indian National Electricity Workers Federation (INEWF),R K Sharma GS All India Powermen Federation (AIPF),Subhash Lamba EEFI and many other employees & engineers office bearers addressed the demonstration. In today’s Satyagrah Power Employees & Engineers of UP, Uttarakhand,J&K, Himachal Pradesh,Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi participated in large numbers.
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) told here that hundreds of Power Employees & Engineers of Northern Region States participated today in a massive protest at Jantar Mantar.He said that protest will continue for four days up to 06th August. Power Employees of Eastern & North Eastern will participate on 04 August, Power Employees of Western Region will participate on 05 August and Power Employees of Southern Region will participate on 06 August.
He said that Power Employees & Engineers across the country are agitating against the unilateral approach of the Central Govt to rush through the Bill in Parliament. He said many provisions of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 are anti people and anti employee and if enacted it will have far reaching adverse consequences.
He demanded that the Bill should not be rushed through and instead should be referred to the standing committee on energy of Parliament. He said that the main stakeholders power consumers & power employees should be given the opportunity to place their view point before placing it in Parliament.
He further said that Electricity Act 2003 allowed the privatization of generation through delicensing and now the proposed Bill will pave the path for the privatization of power distribution through it’s delicensing. Private power companies will go for cherry picking in supplying electricity to consumers and will prefer to supply electricity to only high revenue earning industrial and commercial consumers which will drive state discoms to further bankruptcy.
The move to de-license power distribution is no way to ensure efficient and cost-effective electricity supply to the citizens. Unless the reform is designed scrupulously, taking into account ground realities, the well-intended objective of ‘choice to consumers’ may not be fulfilled.
The move to abolish the cross-subsidy in a time-bound manner and proposing a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to such consumers by the state governments will snatch away the rights of access to electricity for farmers and poor domestic consumers.
The Central Govt seems more concerned over the profitability of private power companies than protecting consumer interests. It will be wrong on the part of the Central Govt to display a self-righteous attitude and bring in far-reaching statutory changes that cut at the root of federalism.
He said that after four days Satyagrah at Delhi about 1.5 million power employees and engineers shall resort to one day strike/work boycott on August 10 across the country. He said if Cenral Govt places the EA Bill 2021 before August 10 then strike will be preponed and all power employees and engineers shall be forced to proceed on strike same day when Bill is tabled in Parliament.
4 days power engineers, employees Satyagrah against Electricity bill 2021 begins at New Delhi State power engineers to participate in the dharna, as per the following programme:
On – 03 August – States of Northern Region (UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab,Haryana,HP, Rajasthan,J&K, Laddakh,Delhi & Chandigarh)
– 04 August – States of Eastern & North Eastern Region (West Bengal,Odisha, Jharkhand,Bihar,Assam, Meghalay,Tripura, Nagaland,Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal,Sikkim)
– 05 August – States of Western Region (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh,MP &Goa)
– 06 August – States of Southern Region (Tamilnadu, Karnataka,Kerala,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana & Puducheri)
August 3,2021
