National Co-ordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) has served notice to the Prime Minister’s office that in case Central Government decides unilaterally to rush through Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014 in Budget Session of Parliament then 25 lakh power employees and engineers across the country shall resort to one day lightning strike/work boycott on the same day as a protest.
NCCOEEE has also intimated to PMO that power employees and engineers will hold massive rally at national capital Delhi on April 3 and massive demonstrations will be held at all State capitals on March 14 against Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014.
All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), All India Federation of Power Diploma Engineers (AIFOPDE), Electricity Employees Federation of India (CITU), All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AITUC), Indian National Electricity Workers Federation (INTUC), All India Power Men’s Federation and other power workers associations in states are associated with NCCOEEE.
Shailendra Dubey Chairman of AIPEF said here on Sunday that NCCOEEE notice of March 2 states that the commitment of former Power Minister with power employees and engineers to redress some of the grievances over the draft bill are not being honoured and correspondence with present Power Minister has become futile and have not yielded any result.
He said that power engineers and employees are agitated over the Government of India’s unilateral decision to pass the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014 without consulting the stake holders.
The engineers and employees are opposed to Electricity (amendment) Bill 2014 as it is yet another step towards the privatization of the power distribution and a further reduction of the role of the state in power sector.
He said the role of the state will be only to enable the private companies to earn profit at the cost of the common people.
In effect, the Bill seeks to privatise the profits and nationalising the losses while Government of India continue to draw rosy picture of improvement of efficiency, extension of competition and reduction of cost of supply of electricity with private participation in the power Industry. The Bill is curbing the right to electricity of poor people. While the interests of the large-scale profitable consumers will be taken care of, the small-time consumers and the poor will be left in the lurch.
He further said that as a result of so called power reforms and over dependence on private houses, losses and debt of power distribution companies have mounted to `9 lakh Crores which was mere `30, 000 Crore at the time of enactment of Electricity Act 2003. He demanded from the government to review the Electricity Act 2003 before tabling the amendment bill 2014 in the parliament.
He said that the proposed amendment would privatize supply to high end consumers, cause massive cherry picking and profiteering by private supply licensees while making the State power utility totally bankrupt.
He said the Government should first make power supply available to the 30 % of population in rural areas.
This task can be handled as a social service by only State owned power distribution companies.
He said that introduction of multiple supply licensees would require massive capital investment in metering and IT and this burden will come on State power sector while profits would be taken by private licensees.