Press note of All India Federation of Electricity Employees (AIFEE)
All India Federation of Electricity Employees
Press Note | 2 August 2022
National Conference of Electricity Employees and Engineers strongly opposed the one-sided efforts of the Central Government to get the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 passed by the parliament;
Several political parties declared support for electricity workers;
Electricity workers will protest across the country on the 80th anniversary of the Quit India Movement;
Electricity workers will be forced to halt work across the country in protest against any one-sided attempt to get the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 passed in Parliament.
On the call of National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE), a national convention of electricity workers was held at Constitution Club, Delhi, today. Through a resolution passed in the conference, the central government has been warned that if the government tries to amend the Electricity Act 2003 by passing the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the parliament without detailed discussion with electricity workers and consumers, there will be strong opposition to this and all 27 lakh electricity workers and engineers across the country will be forced to stop work immediately, for which the central government will be solely responsible.
The national convention was attended by MPs of several major political parties, who called the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 anti-people and declared strong support to the struggle of electricity workers. Mainly, MP Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party, Nageshwar Rao of Telangana State Council, Ilamaran Karim of CPM, MP Dola Sen of Trinamool Congress, MP Binay Vishwam of CPI, Com. Tapan Sen, Hannan Mollah of Sanyukta Kisan Morcha, Shyam Sundar Singh LLC of SP addressed the convention and extended their support.
National presidents of All India Power Engineers Federation, All India Federation of Power Diploma Engineers, Electricity Employees Federation of India, All India Federation of Electricity Employees, All India Power Men’s Federation and Indian National Electricity Workers’ Federation presided over the convention.
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, moved the main proposal on behalf of the Coordination Committee against the anti-people provisions of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022.
The proposal stated that through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, the central government wants to give an opportunity to private companies to earn profit using the network of public sector electricity distribution companies. This network of public distribution companies has been created by spending billions of trillions of rupees of the general public’s money. According to the Amendment Bill, private companies will use the government network and make profit by providing electricity only to profitable industrial and commercial consumers.
According to the Amendment Bill, universal power supply obligation, or the responsibility of providing electricity to all categories of consumers, is only enforced on the government electricity company. Therefore, private companies will not supply electricity to loss-making consumers like farmers and domestic consumers. Private companies will use the network of the government company to snatch profitable industrial and commercial consumers from the government company. As a result, the loss of the public sector company will increase and eventually, like BSNL, public sector power distribution companies will become poor and their network will also be sold to private companies at negligible prices.
The proposal mentioned that the Amendment Bill will end subsidy and cross-subsidy, which will be disadvantageous; a common farmer using a pumping set of 7.5 horsepower for only 6 hours a day will have to pay Rs. 10,000 or more for the whole month. Below poverty line and common household consumers will also suffer because of very expensive electricity.
National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers coordinators Prashant Chaudhary, Shailendra Dubey, Padmajit Singh, RK Trivedi, Mohan Sharma, Samar Sinha, Kuldeep Kumar, P Ratnakar Rao, Abhimanyu Dhankar, K Ashok Rao, Subhash Lamba, Krushna Bhoyar, RK Sharma, Sanjay Thakur, Shamim Ulla and employee and engineer representatives from different provinces of the country addressed the meeting and demanded the central government to withdraw the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 in larger public interest. Further, if it is necessary to amend the Electricity Act 2003, the amendment bill should be referred to the standing committee of parliament on power affairs for detailed discussion with the major stakeholders: electricity workers and consumers.
It was decided in the convention that on 9 August, which is the 80th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, electricity workers at all district and project headquarters across the country would oppose the bill by holding massive protests.
It was also decided that if the government makes any one-sided effort to forcefully pass the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, then on the day that this bill is placed in the parliament, 27 lakh electricity workers and engineers across the country will immediately stop work and organise widespread protests, for which the entire responsibility will be of the central government.
Com. Mohan Sharma, General Secretary: 9823019531
Com. Krushna Bhoyar, National Secretary: 9930003608
All India Federation of Electricity Employees