Lakhs of engineers and employees protest against power privatisation- AIPEF
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 29,2025
Lakhs of power sector engineers and employees led by the All India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF ) and National Coordination Committee of electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) held nationwide lunch hour demonstrations at power utility head offices, thermal plants and other workplaces places today against power privatisation policies of the UP government and in solidarity with power engineers and employees of UP.
The protest demonstrations were held in Telangana, Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir , Punjab , Uttrakhand, all districts of Uttar Pradesh, , Madhya Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and other states across the country , said V K Gupta Media advisor AIPEF .
Joint protest rally at Patiala was held by PSEB Engineers Association, JE Council, Joint Forum , TSU, in solidarity with employees of Uttar Pradesh against the blatant privatization move and UPPCL order amending Personnel Regulations to take any action without enquiry on UP Electricity Employees and Engineers who are agitating for last 183 days against privatisation of Discoms. The rally was addressed by Padamjit Singh Chief Patron AIPEF, Ajaypal Singh Atwal general secretary,PSEBEA, Jagmail Singh and Harpal Singh .
Padamjit Singh Chief Patron AIPEF said that the UPPCL has implemented a Draconian order aimed at suppressing the ongoing struggle in UP that is totally illogical . UPPCL is not following any rule and law even when the tender notice for privatisation has not been issued.
Shailendra Dubey Chairman AIPEF said at Lucknow that there is no need to privatise the UP power sector. UPPCL is fudging the figures to show more losses to favour and handover the power sector to private parties. 85% of electricity supplied to consumers is the power purchase cost and only 15% are operation and maintenance charges. Moreover, the defaulting amount of UP government departments is Rs.14400 crores . Last year due to wrong power purchase agreements by UPPCL, the Rs.6761 crores were paid without purchasing any electricity.
Lakhs of engineers and employees protest against power privatisation- AIPEF. Various speakers across the country have issued a stern warning that any harassment of electricity workers in Uttar Pradesh will not be silently tolerated. They stated that all 27 lakh electricity workers in the country will be forced to take to the streets and agitate, holding the Uttar Pradesh Government solely responsible for any resulting disruption.
