Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
The Federal Council meeting of the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) was held on 16th March 2024 in Chennai. Twenty-three state constituents from across the country participated in it, including Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. The conference reiterated its resolve to fight against any move by the Central or state governments towards privatisation of the power sector.
Er. Shailendra Dubey and Er. P. Ratnakar Rao were re-elected as Chairman and Secretary General, respectively. AIPEF amended its constitution to include women engineers in the federal council. Er. Moupali Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal was made Sr. Vice Chairman of AIPEF. This is a very important decision especially considering that very few women are in leadership bodies of trade unions and associations.
In his address, the Chairman recounted many historic struggles waged by power engineers across the country since the first successful strike of the power engineers of Uttar Pradesh way back in January 1973. The determined fight of the constituents of AIPEF and other power sector employees who have united under the banner of National Co-ordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE) has not allowed the Central government to pass the Electricity Amendment Bill since 2014. The Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 also lapsed as it could not be passed before end of term of the parliament. However, the Chairman cautioned the power sector workers that the danger of further privatisation of power sector is not over and that they should use the respite to build a united front with consumers, especially farmers and domestic consumers, and be prepared to wage a decisive struggle in times to come.
In the meeting, AIPEF also highlighted renewed attempts to privatise power transmission by handing over transmission line projects to private companies. They opposed the installation of smart meters as another step toward power sector privatisation.
The 6th Edition of AIPEF TIMES released on the occasion of the council meeting quotes from its 1st Edition the call given by AIPEF to all the political parties to recognise and declare electricity as a fundamental right for all the people of our country.
