The meeting was convened following Union Minster Piyush Goyal’s recent visit to Goa where he made a statement that the Goa government was finalizing the proposal to privatise the electricity department by engaging the services of Tata.
The 70 employees who attended the meeting raised concern over whether the service benefits they enjoyed as government servants like the Central Pay Commission Pay scales, seniority, promotions and transfer policies would continue to remain in force after privatizing the department.
GGEA President John Nazareth said employees were of the opinion that all departments should join to oppose the privatization. “Employees suggested that the States which had adopted to privatization were generating their own power while in the case of Goa, it was only distributing. The employees shared that in few States, the consumers were left with no power owing to power shedding done by private companies,” he said.
The association has decided to develop contacts with employees of other departments in the state and organize corner meetings before deciding on whether to adopt the proposal or to demand scrapping it. Nazareth said a decision would probably be taken after Ganesh Chaturthi.
They have also said they would seek to meet with Power Minister Milind Naik for details on the proposal.
Nazareth also advised members not to panic and to remain calm and wait till they had all the information.
