CHANDIGARH: Lakhs of electricity employees across India including Punjab , Haryana , Jammu and Kashmir, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh held lunch hour massive demonstration today to protest the privatisation of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal Power Distribution Corporations on a call given by the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE ).
All India power engineers Federation, All India power diploma engineer Federation, All India Federation of electricity employees , Electricity Employees Federation of India, Indian national electricity worker Federation and All India Powerman's Federation have given a joint call of 09 July strike.
In Uttar Pradesh the Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti leaders stated that the power employees of Uttar Pradesh have been continuously agitating for the last 07 months, but it is regretted that the Uttar Pradesh government has not even bothered to hold talks with them. They alleged that it seems top management of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited and some big officials of the government are in collusion with selected private houses. Today more than one lakh electricity employees of Uttar Pradesh participated in protests in all districts. . Farmers under the banner of SKM joined the demonstration at Lucknow in large numbers. In case if tenders for the privatisation of Discoms are floated, a mass ‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ will be launched in all districts immediately.
Shailendra Dubey chairman AIPEF that Uttar Pradesh government is moving fast for pushing ahead with the privatisation of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal discoms by publicising misleading data of losses in UP Discoms.
Rathnakar Rao General Secretary AIPEF said at Hyderabad that through a covert process, bypassing regulatory transparency Discoms with assets worth lakhs of crores cannot be handed over behind closed doors., accusing the corporation of suppressing dissent by declaring an informal emergency.
Protest rally at Patiala was held by PSEB Engineers Association, JE Council, head office Joint action committee and others in solidarity with employees of Uttar Pradesh against the blatant privatization move by UPPCL . The rally was addressed by Padamjit Singh Chief Patron AIPEF and others.
In Haryana rallies were held in Hissar, Kaithal, Panchkula .Ravindra Ghagus general Secretary HPEA warned that selling essential services to private companies at throwaway prices in UP would result in uncontrolled electricity tariff hikes, disproportionately affecting the BPL consumers and farmers.
Today massive demonstrations were held mainly at Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Raipur, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Vadodara, Rajkot, Guwahati, Shillong, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Ranchi, Srinagar, Jammu, Shimla, Dehradun, Patiala, Jaipur, Kota, Hisar and Lucknow , said V K Gupta Media advisor AIPEF