The Upobhokta Mahasangha and the Odisha State Electricity Workers, Employees and Engineers Associations on Friday opposed the move of the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) and the State Government for re-privatisation of the Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu), a Government subsidiary for power distribution.
Upobhokta Mahasangha president Ramesh Chandra Satpathy told a Press meet here that even if the Government is well aware that privatisation would lead to consumers’ misery, the Government in a letter to the OERC on December 13, 2019 has directed it to reduce the Cesu’s share to 49 per cent. With this, the Government is allowing the private companies to re-enter into the power distribution sector, he said.
He also stated that recently it has come to the fore that the OERC would provide licence to the Tata Power through a single-bid process.
“The power discoms managed by the Reliance had successfully managed to show their massive loss; and finally, the OERC had cancelled their licence for failure to make any improvement in the power sector. Considering the past experience, we should never allow the Cesu’s re-privatisation,” Satpathy said.
Trade union leader Jatindra Kumar Ray alleged that even if the employees have a 10-per cent share, no discussions have been done with them about the proposed Cesu re-privatisation.
The associations threatened that if any private company is given licence of the Cesu then the workers, employees and engineers would not cooperate with the private company.
Notably, the OERC has a 51-per cent stake in the utility company and the rest are with the Government.
Among others, Prasant Kumar Routray, Akshaya Kumar Padhy, Bijay Patra, Akhaya Tripathy and Satyabadi Bagh were present at the Press meet.