Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
We have been reporting that Adani Industries has set its eyes on the lucrative power distribution sector in a part of Mumbai and the surrounding areas, including Bhandup, Mulund, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Kharghar, Taloja and Uran (Bhandup circle of Mahavitaran, as the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd., MSEDCL is called)
It is now learnt that the Torrent Company has made a claim to distribute power in Nagpur and Pune, which are also very profitable cities like Mumbai and surrounding areas.
We should note that Bhandup circle generates a monthly revenue of Rs. 1000 crore for Mahavitaran. The new Mumbai airport is coming up in this area, and is already owned by Adani. There are a large number of IT and industrial establishments here as well as a number of high-rise building complexes. Many more will come up in the near future. Thus, the demand for electricity from this belt is already very high and expected to soar.
It is very clear that successive governments are managers of the capitalist class. They have been trying their best to implement the agenda of the monopoly capitalists and hand over the highly profitable parts of the power sector to them.
The power sector workers have been fighting unitedly and valiantly to repel these attacks on public assets that have been built with the taxes paid for decades by the Indian people and the sweat shed by generations of workers.
It is time when we workers from other sectors join them in their struggle. All of us are consumers of electricity and we must understand that privatisation will result in soaring prices, which will not only cut into all our pockets, but also deprive a a large number of poor people of this basic necessity.
It is time to educate other consumers about the electric shock that they will get unless they join in the struggle, shoulder to shoulder with the electricity workers!
When all of us unite, there is no power on earth that can defeat us!