Team Herald
MARGAO: The All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFE) has strongly opposed the Central Government’s ongoing push for privatisation in the electricity sector, warning of nationwide protests against the move.
Speaking at a press conference in Margao on Thursday, Mohan Sharma, General Secretary of AIFE, alongside other union office bearers, told reporters that all unions and associations of power workers and engineers will meet on February 23 in Nagpur to strategise a nationwide response against the government’s privatization policies.
Sharma explained that, in the past, the Government of India had nationalised most private power utilities, establishing State-owned electricity boards. By 1972, nearly all private power licenses were absorbed by these boards. However, in 1991, the government began allowing private entrepreneurs to establish power projects. Since 2014, it has made persistent attempts to privatise all three sectors of power utility—generation, transmission, and distribution, he alleged.
To advance this agenda, the government has introduced the Electricity Amendment Bill five times (2014, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022), he said. Sharma emphasized that power workers and engineers have fought these provisions through nationwide strikes, leading to the temporary withholding of the 2022 amendment Bill by the government.
However, he alleged that the government is now using backdoor tactics to privatise power utilities through joint ventures, franchises, tenders for private distribution and transmission, parallel licenses, and the introduction of prepaid smart meters. Sharma also cited specific examples of privatisation attempts, including power distribution in Puducherry, power generation and distribution in Jammu & Kashmir, and distribution in Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh. Furthermore, Sharma accused the Central government of attempting to hand over India’s power sector to large corporate conglomerates like Adani, Ambani, Tata, and Reliance.
He pointed out that during the recent presentation of the financial budget, the Finance Minister announced plans to privatise public sector units, including power generation and distribution.
One of the latest efforts by the government, according to the federation, is the introduction of a nationwide prepaid smart meter project, which would hand over control of the power distribution sector to private companies and corporations for a period of 93 months.
Additionally, it was noted that on February 1, the government finalised a tender allowing Goenka Company to take over power distribution in Chandigarh. Following the takeover, Goenka Company reportedly forced the retirement of 800 workers and engineers,