Press Release of All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE)
(Translation of Press Release in Hindi)
Press Release
4 February 2025
All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE) strongly condemns the decision of Central Government to privatise the profit-making Chandigarh Electricity Department.
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All India Federation of Electricity Employees strongly condemns the NDA-3 Government for imposing Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the electricity employees who have been valiantly fighting against the privatisation of the Electricity Department of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, a highly profitable government utility. National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) has been fighting since 2014 to ensure ‘no privatisation of electricity’.
Chandigarh Electricity Department is an efficient and model public sector unit, which is on an average 100% working day. It has an annual turnover of Rs 1000 crore and a profit of Rs 250 crore. It has one of the lowest power tariffs in the country at Rs 4.50 per unit and has managed to keep AT&C losses below 10 per cent. Despite this strong financial position, the utility was put up for privatisation through a dubious bidding process with the base price fixed at a mere Rs 174.63 crore. Further, the private bidder has been allowed to use valuable land at a mere Rs 1 per month. The value of other assets has been fixed at Rs 1 per item based on the weak excuse that the asset register lacks clear valuation data. This is nothing but plunder of public property by private monopoly capitalists.
BJP ruled states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have also taken steps to privatise the power sector and power workers are agitating in those states too. All the farmers and labour organisations of the country have extended support to the workers in those states.
Privatisation of the public sector not only imposes market dominance on electricity consumers to deregulate tariffs and loot the people but also eliminates secure employment in the public sector and eliminates reservations that existed on recruitment. Thus, the youth and sections belonging to Adivasis, Dalits, OBCs and minorities also suffer the brunt of losing meaningful employment and social security measures. Through the spree of privatisation across the country, the BJP-RSS combine is attacking the foundations of the Constitution of India which ensures a strong public sector and welfare of the marginalised sections.
The All India Federation of Electricity Employees supports the electricity employees who have been staging massive demonstrations against privatisation on a daily basis in Chandigarh for the last 50 days. It calls upon farmers and people across the country to support the workers’ struggle and thus put an end to the plunder of people’s property by corporate monopolies.
The struggle against privatisation needs to be developed as an All-India mass movement to protect the public sector. The decision of the Central Government to install smart prepaid meters for crores of electricity consumers across the country is the first step towards privatization of the government electricity company. The Federation strongly condemns the decision of the Central Government to privatize.
Your comrades,
Com. M. Murthy, President (Tamil Nadu)
Com. Mohan Sharma, General Secretary (Nagpur)
Com. Shamim Ullah, Working President (Karnataka)
Com. Krushna Bhoyar, Deputy General Secretary (Mumbai)
Com. Baijnath Singh, Deputy General Secretary (Jharkhand)
All India Federation of Electricity Employees