Power employees of the Uttar Pradesh on Monday boycotted work in protest against the proposed privatisation of the Purvanchal Power Distribution Corporation, a subsidiary of UP Power Corporation Limited.
This subsidiary covers politically significant districts like Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Gorakhpur, the home town of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The work boycott disrupted power generation and also affected the power supply in different parts of the state.
The power generation in six generation units of the Obra and Anpara thermal power stations in Sonbhadra district was disrupted affecting 1820 megawatt of power.
In Shahjahanpur district, the power supply in Kalan area was disrupted after the power employees shut the 33/11 distribution sub-station and locked it while in Choubeypur in Kanpur Nagar, fire broke out at a sub-station.
Though the UP government made alternative arrangements in view of the work boycott by the power engineers and employees, the power generation and supply was affected in many districts.
Protests and dharnas by the striking power employees and engineers were also reported from western parts of the state.
Power Employees Joint Action Committee coordinator Manohar Singh said here on Monday that the employees and engineers would not succumb to any pressure and would not allow the government to go for privatisation of the power sector.
He said once the power sector went into private hands, the consumers would be worst affected as the power tariff would be beyond the reach of a large number of consumers.
He said the subsidised power in the rural areas and for irrigation would also end as the main objective would be profit of the private company.
On Sunday, the UPPCL management held talks with the employee’s joint action committee leaders to persuade them to withdraw the work boycott call. The talks however broke down after the management rejected their demand for the rollback of the privatisation of the Purvanchal power distribution corporation.
