CHANDIGARH: National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) in its meeting held today declared a nationwide movement against any unilateral action of privatization of electricity in Uttar Pradesh. It was also decided that protest meetings across the country against privatization will be held on December 13 and 19 .
Shailendra Dubey, chairman of the All-India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) and convenor of the UP Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti, a coalition of 16 trade unions said that Privatisation will lead to layoffs, staff reversion and higher tariff for consumers.
The meeting of NCCOEEE held in Lucknow today was presided over by Subhash Lamba, Vice President of Electricity Employees Federation of India(EEFI) and attended by Shailendra Dubey, l P Ratnakar Rao, R K Trivedi, Mohan Sharma and others.
NCCOEEE decided that in case of unilateral action by the government in Uttar Pradesh or Chandigarh , then without giving any further notice on the same day, all 27 lakh power employees of the country will be forced to take to the streets and nationwide protests will be held.
Bijli Panchayat will be organized in Lucknow on 22nd December and in Chandigarh on 25th December in which a large number of farmers and common consumers will participate along with the power employees, who will be informed about the consequences of privatization of electricity on the consumers and employees.
NCCOEEE strongly condemned the unilateral action of privatization by UP Power Corporation in violation of the agreements reached with the Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Committee, UP and demanded from the Chief Minister to take effective intervention so that atmosphere of industrial unrest unnecessarily created in the energy sector of Uttar Pradesh by Power Corporation can be ended.
It may be mentioned that as per the written agreement of 05 April 2018 it was decided that the reform in the existing system of power distribution corporations will be done by taking power employees in confidence. Any kind of privatization in the energy sector in Uttar Pradesh will not be done without taking the employees into confidence.
NCCOEEE strongly condemned the action of unilateral privatization of power distribution in Rajasthan and sale of Rajasthan Generation Corporation to NTPC and Coal India Limited in the name of joint venture and demanded withdrawal of these actions.