JAIPUR: All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) opposes the privatisation of Rajasthan power sector via joint venture route and supports the ongoing agitation of employees .
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman AIPEF, addressing the Press Conference at Jaipur today said that joint venture decision is not in the interest of people of state. This will make electricity expensive, burdening the common consumers. He said AIPEF supports the agitation of Rajasthan's electricity workers and said that if any action is taken against the workers, then electricity workers across the country will take steps in their support.
The officials of the Sangharsh Samiti said that Rajasthan is getting the cheapest electricity from Chhabra Thermal Power Station. Electricity is available at the rate of Rs 3.56 per unit from Chhabra CSCTPP and Rs 3.74 per unit from CTPP, which is the most economical for the state. They said that they will not allow NTPC to enter the thermal plant.
On Tuesday a massive Bijli Mahapanchayat was held at the Chhabra under the banner of Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Abhiyanta Karmachari Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti and thermal power plant employees including officers, engineers of electricity department joined the Mahapanchayat
Shailendra Dubey said at the Mahapanchayat that privatisation of Rajasthan power sector is going on at a very fast pace .The transmission system of the state has been given to Power Grid as a joint venture, one third of 132 KV sub-stations has been handed over to contractors. 4 franchisees at Kota, Bharatpur , Bikaner, and Ajmer are existing in the state power distribution. Now joint ventures are being done to hand over state thermal plants.
As per section 131 of Electricity Act 2003 any part of the power sector can only be transferred to an outsider only after evaluating the revenue potential and asset value of the property. Even NTPC or PGCIL are not state agencies but central government agencies , the joint ventures should be in accordance with Electricity Act 2003.The joint ventures are not according to law and should be scrapped.
V K Gupta informed that the privatization of Rajasthan's thermal power plants could lead to job insecurity and detrimental changes in working conditions.
The issue of privatization being undertaken under different names such as cluster model, Hem model, JV model in all corporations of the Rajasthan electricity sector is not acceptable to employees. Sangharsh Samiti is opposing the joint venture being done between the Generation Corporation and the Central Public Sector Undertakings.