Widespread protests across the province:
Electricity workers are enraged by the news of the RFP document being kept confidential
Statement of Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh
Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh, has warned that if the tender for privatization is issued forcibly, then as soon as the tender is issued, electricity workers will start a mass jail bharo andolan in all districts, for which the entire responsibility will be of the management.
On completing 300 days of the ongoing movement against privatization, today, electricity workers resolved to start a mass jail bharo satyagraha by holding strong protests in all districts of the state.
In the capital Lucknow, central officer bearers of Vidyut Karamchari Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti, Uttar Pradesh, and State Electricity Council Junior Engineers Organization, UP, led a protest at Shakti Bhawan headquarters today, 23 September and said that electricity workers will not allow the conspiracy of privatization to succeed under any circumstances in the name of false figures of losses, repression and oppression.
Central office bearers of the Sangharsh Samiti said that it has come to light that the Power Corporation management and the All India Discom Association have decided that the entire tender process should be kept confidential. Under this, five corporations of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam will be formed and five separate tenders will be issued in which a link will be given. The link will be opened only when the private company submitting the tender pays five lakh rupees and will also have to give an affidavit that after the link is opened, no company will make the RFP document public.
The Sangharsh Samiti stated that the All India Discom Association is meeting regularly with private companies and is acting as a middleman in the privatization process. Since the All India Discom Association’s involvement, there have been discussions about quid pro quos in the privatization process.
The Sangharsh Samiti stated that the Uttar Pradesh government, under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, has a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. Keeping the entire tender process and RFP document confidential is a very serious matter, and thus, the entire process reeks of corruption. The Sangharsh Samiti stated that if this were true, it would likely be the first time in the country’s history that assets worth millions of crores of rupees were being sold so secretly. The Sangharsh Samiti stated that concealing the RFP document was a very serious matter.
On completing 300 days of the ongoing agitation since November 28 against the privatization of Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam and Dakshinchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam, electricity workers, contract workers, junior engineers and engineers held strong protests in all districts of the state and resolved to continue their agitation against privatization by involving farmers and consumers till the decision of privatization is withdrawn.
The protest meeting held in the capital Lucknow was mainly addressed by Shailendra Dubey, Jitendra Singh Gurjar, Ajay Kumar, Balbir Singh Yadav, Mahendra Rai, PK Dixit, Suhail Abid, Shri Chand, Deepak Chakraborty, Mohammad Ilyas, Prem Nath Rai, Sarju Trivedi.
In addition to the capital Lucknow, strong protests were held in Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Mirzapur, Azamgarh, Basti, Aligarh, Mathura, Etah, Jhansi, Banda, Bareilly, Devipatan, Ayodhya, Sultanpur, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshar, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Moradabad.