Lakhs of power sector employees join nationwide protest against privatisation -AIPEF
Bahadurjeet Singh /Rupnagar
Lakhs of power sector employees staged a nationwide protest and work boycott on Monday against the privatization policies of the central government ,,which are against the interest of the consumers and employees. said V K Gupta a spokesperson of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) .
Gupta said that on the call of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) , power sector employees and engineers of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand. Telangana, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra,Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Puducherry, and other states held protest meetings as part of two days work boycott.
Even in Orissa , where the power distribution has been privatised , the employees and engineers held gate meetings today. In Maharashtra power sector , 27 associations of regular employees and 12 outsourcing associations are participating in the strike.he said..
V K Gupta said that the employees are seeking scrapping of Electricity Amendment Bill 2021, and Standard Bidding Document for the total privatization of distribution of electricity. The other demands of the power sector employees and engineers are withdrawing process of privatization of Electricity in states and union territories.
Further , all types of privatization processes should be stopped, including the decision to privatize the power sector, especially in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman Diu, and Puducherry.
He said that in the name of reforms, the government is serving the interest of the private sector,gradually destroying the public sector across the country.
He also urged the government to re-merge all power utilities in states with function components of generation, transmission, and distribution like KSEB Ltd and HPSEB Ltd.
The Federation official also demanded the implementation of an old pension scheme for all power sector employees and the regularisation of all contractual workers.
V K Gupta further said that the various provisions of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 are anti-people and anti-employee and if enacted it will have far-reaching adverse consequences.The private sector would compete over
larger and more profitable consumers while the smaller and poorer consumers would be left to languish.
He said that the electricity amendment bill will put the future of over 25 lakh workers employed by the Discoms as well as their families in danger. Consumers will also be badly affected by the Bill as they will simply be transferred from the Discom to the private company.
March 28,2022
