Power engineers to protest on Feb 3 against privatisation of discoms

The engineers are set to protest against the move to privatise distribution companies by the central government

Power sector engineers would go for token work boycott across the country on February 3 to protest against the move to privatise distribution companies by the central government, 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.

Shailendra Dubey, the Chairman of AIPEF, in a letter to the Prime Minister, stated that power engineers and engineers are grieved over the central government's move towards the power sector privatisation through Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, & Standard Bidding Document 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 withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020.

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

The other demands are scraping 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.