Electricity Bill Amendment: Power Engineers Call For Protest On Feb 3 Against Privatisation

Privatisation and targeted benefits to chosen corporates is also the root cause of the ongoing farmers' agitation, says Shailendra Dubey, the Chairman of AIPEF

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 18 January 2021 3:56 pm

Engineers working in the power sector have announced a boycott of token work across the country on February 3 to stage a protest against the central government's move to privatise the distribution of electricity as mentioned in the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, & Standard Bidding Document, the All India Power Engineers' Federation (AIPEF) said on Monday.

"Power engineers across the country shall resort to token work boycott and hold protest meetings on 3rd February against privatization policies of the Government of India," AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta said in a statement.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Shailendra Dubey, the Chairman of AIPEF, stated that power engineers are grieved over the Electricity Bill amendment that moved for total privatisation of distribution of electricity.

Power engineers are opposing conversion of public monopoly to private monopoly, he said, adding that the policy of privatisation was slowly destroying the public sector across the country while giving huge benefits to selected corporates.

Privatisation and targeted benefits to chosen corporates is the root cause of the ongoing farmers' agitation, he pointed out.

The AIPEF expressed solidarity to struggling organisations of peasants whose one of the main demands is the withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020.

The AIPEF demanded a "withdrawal process of privatization of electricity from public the sector to private companies in states and union territories".

The other demands are scrapping of electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 & standard bidding document for total privatization of distribution of electricity and reintegrate all power utilities in states with function components of generation, transmission, and distribution.

The Electricity (Amendment) Bill in its present form is not acceptable, it said, adding that before going for more amendments in the electricity sector, the government should constitute an expert committee to review the result of so-called reforms done in the last 25 years in the power sector, which has landed discoms in a very alarming financial crisis.

With PTI inputs