NEW DELHI, Feb 3: Thousands of power sector employees and engineers under the banner of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers held protest rallies seeking withdrawal of Electricity Amendment Bill 2021, listed for introduction in the budget session of Parliament for privatization of the power distribution companies.
“Power engineers and employees observed nationwide protest against privatisation policies of the government of India and demanded the withdrawal process of privatisation of electricity from the public sector to private companies in states and Union territories without further delay,” All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) spokesperson V K Gupta said.
“We do not now know what amendments have been introduced in the original draft bill 2020,” Gupta said.
In a rally in Chandigarh, AIPEF Chairman Shailendra Dubey said the Chandigarh electricity department is the best-managed power department and is making profit for the last five years and there is no justification for privatising the same since it has low losses, low tariff, and good consumer service.
The privatisation move has been started to benefit a few industrialists of the country, he alleged.
Padamjit Singh Chief Patron AIPEF said the finance minister in her budget speech mentioned that there would be competition in power distribution.
“In the case of Chandigarh privatisation proposal, there is 100 per cent sale of the electricity department, then where will be the competition?” he asked.
Gupta said the government is simply privatising the power sector at the cost of the state sector in the name of reforms.
The last three decades of market-oriented power sector reforms have exposed the inefficiency of the central government’s reform programme, he added.
The present set of reforms is nothing but a desperate attempt by the government to cover up the policy miscalculations of the past decades, while simultaneously protecting the interests of private power generators at the cost of state distribution companies, AIPEF said.
(Manas Dasgupta)