Report of virtual meeting of All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP) on 2 February 2025 by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
On 2 February 2025, All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP) organized a meeting on “Support the Struggle of Workers and Consumers Fighting Against Privatisation of Electricity, including Smart Meters.” The meeting was addressed by Shri Shailendra Dubey, Convenor, Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh, Shri Mohan Sharma, General Secretary, All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE),
Shri Sampat Desai, Working President, Shramik Mukti Dal, Maharashtra, Shri Vijay Kumar Bandhu, National President, National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS), Shri C. Srikumar, General Secretary, All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), Shri Inder Singh Badana, National Secretary, All India Road Transport Workers Federation (AIRTWF), Shri J.N. Shah, Central Vice President, All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA). The meeting was conducted by Dr. A Mathew, Convenor, All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP). Nearly 500 people attended the meeting from various sectors apart from electricity sector to express their solidarity with the struggle of electricity employees and consumers. A number of participants also expressed their views.
Com. Mathew, Convenor of AIFAP and Secretary of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC), provided a brief background about privatisation. At the time of independence, corporate houses did not have the substantial funds necessary to run heavy industries. That is why, sectors like power distribution were nationalized and run using people’s tax money. Once the corporate class had amassed enough wealth to enter such sectors, they forced the government to introduce the liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation (LPG) policy in 1991. Since then, all governments have implemented this policy to privatise various public and government sectors. AIFAP was formed to oppose privatisation. The Forum has 116 members and the website has more than 5 lakh viewers, making it the most viewed website of workers’ struggles. AIFAP has been regularly reporting on struggles against privatisation of electricity in UP, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and other places.
In UP, discoms are being handed over to monopoly corporate houses. In Maharashtra, agreements for installing smart meters have been made with private companies. The power sector is a highly profitable sector. After the failure of experiments such as the franchisee system in electricity distribution, corporate houses wanted a new way of entering this sector, which is why the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020 was introduced. It is a testament to the determined struggle of electricity workers and farmers that the government has not been able to pass the bill for 4 years now.
The government is now using backdoor methods of privatisation, such as smart meter installation. Com. Mathew informed participants that on April 2014, AIFAP and KEC took the initiative to launch a booklet that explains that smart meters are against workers and all people. This booklet has 46 signatories, including organizations of workers, peasants, and citizens. This booklet was launched at a National Online Meeting called by AIFAP on April 14, 2024, “ Unitedly Oppose Anti -worker, Anti-people Smart Electricity Meters”. Thousands of copies of this booklet have been distributed, and it has helped strengthen the struggle significantly.
Consumers are also important participants in these struggles. In Chandigarh and UP, massive Bijli Panchayats are being organized. Youth, workers, and peasants took out candle marches in Chandigarh. In Maharashtra, people’s committees against smart meters have been formed. In Gadhinglaj, Maharashtra, thousands of people came out on the street and were successful in getting the smart meter contract with Adani withdrawn from four talukas. Most consumers of electricity are workers and peasants. We must unitedly wage a struggle against electricity privatisation!
Shri Shailendra Dubey, Convenor of Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh, said that the private sector in electricity generation already has greater generation capacity than NTPC and state discoms, and now they want to take over distribution. The government said that UP discoms are being privatised because it has losses of Rs. 1 lakh 10 thousand crores. However, government departments themselves owe discoms dues of Rs. 1 lakh 25 thousand crores. These are not waived off. So, if these dues are recovered the power department actually has Rs. 15 thousand crores of profit!
In 2018, an agreement was signed with then Energy Minister of UP, stating that electricity will not be privatised in UP without taking employees into confidence. In 2020, a cabinet subcommittee had signed a similar agreement. But the government does not respect any agreements.
Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal discoms have combined revenue targets of around Rs. 65 thousand crores; their actual revenue potential is higher. Yet, Purvanchal is being sold for only Rs. 1500 crores and Dakshinanchal for Rs. 1510 crores.
Chandigarh discom has assets of Rs. 22,000 crores, and it is being sold for merely Rs. 871 crores. On the midnight of 31 January and 1 February, Chandigarh’s discom was given to Goenka. Chandigarh has the cheapest electricity in the country. Moreover, the discom is profitable even though there has been no hike in rates for the last 5 years! Workers in Chandigarh fought against privatisation for 5 years and faced immense suppression, even having FIRs lodged against them. Ultimately, the administration threatened workers by giving half of the regular employees forced VRS. Thus, workers’ strength was reduced by half over night and the discom was privatised.
Shri Dubey said that the central and state governments have decided to repress UP power employees to teach the entire country a lesson. He informed about other steps being taken by the administration. There are plans to privatise J&K electricity, with the first step being installation of 100% prepaid meters. A few days ago, the Ministry of Energy constituted a group of ministers from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, the power minister from DMK has supported privatisation and smart meters. In Maharashtra, a tender has been issued to outsource 340 substations. In Karnataka, the state government led by the Congress party has told the power department to sell its assets (monetisation) to gather funds.
There are attacks on the power sector from all directions, with big measures underway to suppress UP electricity workers. Shri Dubey said that the workers have resolved to continue their fight and save public assets at any cost.
Shri Mohan Sharma, General Secretary of All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE), condemned the attempts of privatisation in UP and Chandigarh. He said that the private sector is also entering power transmission. The 2022 budget clearly stated that of the transmission power lines in the country, 28,608 km will be privatised. 6000 MW lines under government discoms will also be handed over to private companies. Implementation of this has already started.
Under the smart meter policy, private companies will have control over metering and bill collection for 93 months. At the same time, these companies can apply for parallel licensing, a provision that has not been passed by the MERC (Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission). With this, private companies can get control of different regions served by the Maharashtra discom.
Smart meters are the first step to privatisation. If smart meters are implemented, lakhs of consumers in the state will be affected. In Maharashtra, tenders have already been issued for the installation of 2.25 crore smart meters. The way in which the tenders were issued without MERC approval was illegal. Moreover, Nagrik Samitis have said that cost of the three-phase meter cannot be more than Rs. 6000, but tenders issued in Maharashtra are of Rs. 12,000 per meter. This is a big scam. Across the country, Adani has received tenders worth Rs. 21,227 crores for installing smart meters and Genus has tenders worth Rs. 28,500 crores. Legal battles are ongoing in 14-15 states, and in Manipur, the court has issued a stay order on smart meters until tender conditions are fulfilled.
Worker unions and consumer forums have come together. Nagrik Samitis have been formed in Gadhinglaj, Pune, Nagpur, Chiplun, etc. and demonstrations are being held in various places. Workers’ unions alone cannot stop smart meters, they should take consumers with them. In Maharashtra, if smart meters are installed, around 50,000 workers from the billing, meter-reading, meter testing, disconnection and reconnec tion departments will be out of work. Further, 329 substation are being outsourced, with crores of rupees being given to contractors. This has never been done before.
If privatisation succeeds in UP, this will have a very bad effect on electricity sectors throughout the country. All organizations of employees and engineers are united under NCCOEEE. Because of this unity, we have been able to stop smart meters. To support workers in Chandigarh, Rajasthan, and UP, NCCOEEE is organizing a meeting in Nagpur on 23 February. Organizations across the country will participate. We are prepared to fight with all our strength.
Shri Sampat Desai, Working President of Shramik Mukti Dal, Maharashtra, informed participants that before Maharashtra announced the decision of installing smart and prepaid meters, the then Energy Minister Fadnavis had actually said in the state assembly that smart meters will not be installed for ordinary consumers. But when the government came into power again, they changed their stance and gave contracts to Adani, Genus, and other companies.
Shri Desai noted that if only electricity workers organize agitations, people may think that they are fighting for their jobs. They will not realize that the workers are actually fighting for ordinary people. Therefore, in Kolhapur district, it was decided to gather consumers in the agitation. Fifteen days before the consumers’ morcha in Gadhinglaj, meetings were conducted in mohallas and villages and 2 lakh leaflets were distributed. On 6 January, 2000 consumers participated in the morcha.
The morcha was very powerful. The consumers forced the Executive Engineer of Mahavitaran to give in writing that until jan sunwais are held and public decision is taken, no smart or prepaid meters can be installed. This letter was given to a representative of the Adani Company. This is the power of the people. Consumers also demanded that the tenders given to Adani and other companies should be made available to people in Marathi and displayed in gram panchayat offices, so that people can read for themselves and see that the policy is harmful. After Gadhinglaj, there have been morchas in other places. People’s organizations and opposition parties are uniting for this. Morchas have been planned in Sindhudurg, Sangli, Ratnagiri as well as other places.
Shri Desai said that the struggle is not only against smart meters, it is about privatisation. However, if we go to the people taking the issues of smart meters, they will join the struggle. Until people join, we cannot defeat privatisation. Electricity privatisation is not the issue of a single caste or community, so people will definitely come. He suggested holding central meetings with workers as well as people’s organizations in all states.
(Please see the Part II of the Report of the meeting for details of the support expressed by speakers of various other sectors to the struggle of electricity workers and consumers. They also spoke about struggle waged by them to oppose privatisation in their own sector.)