CHANDIGARH: Thousands of power employees and engineers held a massive rally in New Delhi on Wednesday against the central government's electricity amendment bill 2022 and privatisation of the power sector, said V K Gupta, Spokesperson of All India Power Engineers Federation.
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The power sector employees and engineers from all over the country including Punjab, participated in the massive rally.
A resolution was passed at the rally warning the central government that any unilateral action to get the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 passed in Parliament without taking the electricity employees and engineers across the country into confidence would be strongly opposed and all 27 lakh electricity employees and engineers of the country will be forced to resort to a nationwide movement against the move and the central government will be responsible for it.
The main demands of the employees are the withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, stopping privatisation of the power sector, reintegration of all power utilities in a state, restoration of the old pension scheme, and regularisation of all outsourced employees. .
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman of AIPEF said that although Lok Sabha has referred Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 to the Standing Committee on Energy, to date the standing committee has not held any discussions with power employees or electricity consumers who are the biggest stakeholders.
Gupta said that the amendments being planned to the Electricity Act by the Centre would lead to the privatisation of the power sector and burden the poor, middle class and farmers with huge tariff increases. The power sector reforms need to be guided by planning and not by market forces. The amendments planned to the Electricity Act 2003 would lead to the privatization of the power distribution sector across the country. This would burden the poor, middle-class, and farmers with huge tariff increases in due course of it.
A failed model was being introduced in the power sector in the name of reforms and in the name of the financial viability of discoms. The Centre is planning to bring private companies into the power sector and allow them to use the state Discoms infrastructure.