UP powermen to agitate from Mar 31 against 'privatisation'

Uttar Pradesh power employees and engineers will proceed on indefinite work boycott from March 31 against the proposed transfer of power distribution in Agra to Torrent Power in the first week of April.

They have warned of complete strike if the proposed ‘privatisation’ took place or action was taken against the agitating engineers.

Power distribution in Kanpur is also lined up for transfer to Torrent in coming months.

Powermen under the banner of Power Employees’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) alleged the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) was proceeding with the proposed transfer on basis of wrong data and to help Torrent garner abnormal profit.

“We have served the work boycott notice to UPPCL and there has been no word from the government on the matter,” JAC spokesperson Shailendra Dubey said.

He alleged in the tender document the average tariff for Agra and Kanpur was mentioned as Rs 2.82 and Rs 3.55 respectively, against which Torrent had bid Rs 1.54 and Rs 2.

“Now, UPPCL has admitted the average tariff for Agra and Kanpur comes to Rs 4 and Rs 4.25 respectively. Hence, the bidding process should be scrapped as Torrent had based its bid on wrong data,” he noted.

Dubey claimed in Agra alone UPPCL will incur a loss of Rs 6,000 crore for the next 20 years based on what Torrent had bid.

Torrent was selected through competitive bidding in February 2009 and a formal agreement signed on May 18. Torrent had committed to invest over Rs 200 crore and Rs 500 crore in Agra and Kanpur respectively.

Torrent had promised perquisites over salary to powermen, who were willing to work with it in the two cities, once the transfer took place. However, JAC remains adamant on its demand of rollback of the franchisee power distribution model. Seven other cities are in the pipeline for similar ventures namely Bareilly, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Aligarh and Meerut.