Press Release of National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE)
National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers
Press Note 23 February, 2025
Nationwide strike on 26 June against electricity privatization;
Conferences will be held across the country to make strike success;
Four big rallies in March to protest against electricity privatization in UP.
The National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) decided to resort to a nationwide strike on 26 June to protest against the privatization of electricity. The NCCOEEE has decided that big conferences will be held in all the provinces of the country in the months of April and May to make the nationwide strike a success. Earlier, the National Office Bearers of NCCOEEE will hold four big rallies in protest against the ongoing process of privatization in Uttar Pradesh.
The Coordination Committee also decided that the power workers of the country along with All India Trade Unions will resort to strike on the day as decided by All India Trade Unions, besides going on strike on 26 June.
In the NCCOEEE meeting held in Nagpur, Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, Shailendra Dubey, Secretary General P Ratnakar Rao, Mohan Sharma and Krushna Bhoyar of All India Federation of Electricity of Electricity Employees (AIFEE), Prashant Chaudhary and Subhash Lamba of the Electricity Employees Federation of India (EEFI), Samar Sinha of All India Power Mens Federation (AIPMF), Biju Krishna of Bharatiya Kisan Morcha, Girish Bhave of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) mainly addressed.
Leaders of power employee’s unions and associations of various provinces of the country attended the National Conference. Jitendra Singh Gurjar, General Secretary of UP Power Engineers Association and Chief General Secretary of UP Bijlee Karmchari Sangh Mahendra Rai gave information about the ongoing privatization process in UP and the movement of Power Employees and Engineers.
The resolution passed in the NCCOEEE General Assembly states that the manner in which the profit-making power department of Chandigarh was privatized is extremely objectionable. According to the UP government, arrear of Rs. one lakh fifteen thousand crores is due and loss is of Rs, one lakh ten thousand crores. Thus, it is clear that if the revenue is recovered, then the power distribution corporations of UP are in profit. The resolution states that the transmission sector is being privatized extensively in the name of tariff based competitive bidding and asset monetization. Curse of privatization of generation is being faced by common consumers in the form of very expensive electricity in the field of generation.
The resolution states that privatization is not only against the interest of employees, but also against common consumers as the expensive costly electricity is the most fatal for consumers. There is a power tariff of up to Rs 17 – 18 per unit for domestic consumers in the private sector in Mumbai. Farmers do not get subsidy in the private sector. If privatization is not stopped, expensive electricity will break the back of common consumers.
The resolution, passed in the General Assembly, demanded the Central and State Governments must immediately withdraw all steps for privatization of electricity, otherwise the power employees and engineers across the country will be forced to resort to a nationwide strike with full solidarity.