Massive demonstration by HPSEBL employees at Hamirpur

Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ February 12,2025

Himachal Pradesh State Electricity board Ltd. (HPSEBL) employees, pensioners and outsourced employees have opened a front against the government regarding their demands. Employees and pensioners staged a massive protest at Hamirpur on Tuesday and participated in the Mahapanchayat.

The Panchayat opposed the tampering with the structure of the electricity board. Convener Lokesh Thakur, convener of the joint front of HPSEBL Employees Association said that the losses of the electricity board are increasing due to the policies of the government. He said that with pending government departments bills of more than Rs 200 crore , how is it possible to pay one rupee for a unit of electricity which is produced for eight rupees. This is the reason that the board’s losses are increasing continuously. He said that 51 posts of engineers have been abolished and several hundreds of employees retrenched.

Committee co-convenor Hira Lal Verma said that the conspiracy to abolish the board will not succeed. No one can abolish the electricity board. If there is a provision of pension for MLAs, then why not for employees.

Chandra Singh Mandayal, Kuldeep Kharwada said that where there were 43 thousand posts in the electricity board earlier, now only 13 thousand are left. New posts are not being filled. Posts are being abolished in the name of rationalization. There is a conspiracy to hand over the board to private hands.

It has been decided to organize the next Maha Panchayat in Una district on February 18. The main demands of the employees are old pension should be restored in the electricity board, in the name of rationalization in the electricity board, 706 surplus posts should be restored and new recruitments should be started,the agreement made with the electricity employees and engineers in June 2010 cannot be tampered with while implementing it and operation and maintenance outsourcing of substations and power houses in the electricity board should be stopped.

V K Gupta informed that the National Convention of all Unions and Associations associated with National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE_ against privatisation of electricity shall be held on February 23 at Nagpur.

Representatives from power sector federations and associations from all the states across the country will join the national convention where the decision on the future course of action in various states where the privatisation process has been started will be taken.