Report by Kamgar Ekata Committee (KEC) correspondent
Electricity consumers of Uttar Pradesh, not only from rural areas but most of the big cities of the state are suffering from regular power outages in last 2-3 months. Power corporation management of Uttar Pradesh and various state government officials and ministers are trying their best to put the blame for these outages on power sector workers. But, Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (VKSSS) Uttar Pradesh , All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) and even electricity consumer associations of Uttar Pradesh are strongly refuting these allegations and highlighting as to how Uttar Pradesh state government’s policies are the real cause for the suffering of electricity consumers.
Over last 3-4 years VKSSS has been continuously explaining electricity consumers the ills of privatization by holding hundreds of meetings and Mahapanchayats. It is this tireless consumer contact drive which has mobilized support of crores of UP consumers against the privatization drive.
They are pointing out that lack of adequate human power is one main reason. At present a single Junior engineer managing three to four substations and a sub-divisional officer overseeing nearly 10 to 12 feeders has become routine across several power distribution divisions in Uttar Pradesh. Excessive workload and constant pressure are affecting efficiency of engineers. They are often forced to remain on duty till late night during fault outages and peak summer demand.
Another major concern highlighted is the decline in field level technical staff. A large number of workers were shifted from field duties into sub-station operator roles while a large number of contractual linemen and sub-station operators were removed or reduced. This has significantly weakened fault response capability.
Shailendra Dubey, chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said that, “Despite rising electricity demand over last decade, adequate number of new sub-stations and feeders were not added. As a result, a large percentage of transformers, sub-stations and feeders are currently operating in overloaded condition. This has frequently led to frequent tripping, low voltage supply and transformer faults resulting in repeated power cuts during peak hours. A city like Lucknow requires around 350 substations but only has 148.”
This has raised another question. if thousands of crores have already been spent under the Revamped Distribution Sector scheme (RDSS), for system strengthening and reduction of faults, why are local outages still troubling consumers?
While the state consumer base has crossed 3.5 crore, which is nearly double of what it was nine years ago, the manpower has shrunk rather than expanded. According to UP Bijli Karmachari Union’s working president Prem Nath Rai, against around 73000 sanctioned posts more than 43000 are vacant and no large-scale recruitment has taken place for the last four years. Besides, more than 20000 contractual workers have been removed leaving the existing staff burdened with significantly higher workload.
Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti Uttar Pradesh is pointing out that UP power sector engineers and workers are setting new records of power supply. They have given many practical suggestions to improve the power situation. But power corporation management is refusing to discuss anything with them. On the contrary, it is resorting to threats to permanent and contractual employees. In spite of strong and logical opposition by the Sangharsh Samiti and even electricity consumer associations, Vertical Restructuring system has been forcible implemented and many contract employees with 20-25 years’ experience have been thrown out. This is the main cause of all the sufferings of electricity consumers.
Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (VKSSS) Uttar Pradesh and other organizations are demanding immediate reinstatement of more than 20,000 contract workers and scrapping of Vertical Restructuring system implementation.