Defence, state government, railways, and road transport workers express solidarity with electricity workers fighting against privatisation at the All India Conference organized by AIFAP!
Report of virtual meeting of All India Forum Against Privatisation (AIFAP) on 2 February 2025 by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
After introductory speech of Dr Mathew and speeches of Shri Shailendra Dubey, Shri Mohan Sharma and Shri Sampat Desai about the struggles being waged against privatization of electricity in their areas (please see Part I for details of their speeches), a number of representatives of various sectors expressed their solidarity with and support to ongoing struggles against electricity privatization and also talked about their struggles against privatization. The highlights of their speeches ae given below.
Shri Vijay Kumar Bandhu, National President of National Movement for Old Pension Scheme (NMOPS), informed that the NMOPS was formed to oppose New Pension Scheme (NPS) and privatisation. On June 1, 2023, the NMOPS started an NPS-Nijikaran Bharat Chhodo Yatra from Champaran and covered 18,000 km in 33 days across the country, passing through several districts and villages. On October 1, 2023, a massive rally was held in Ramlila Maidan with the support of several unions.
Shri Bandhu said that privatisation is a conspiracy of corporates against lower and middle classes. He gave the example of expensive private train tickets. If everything is privatised like this, then no one will be able to take trains, buses, or treatment in hospitals. He said that it is being said that smart meters will be installed for free, but this is just like the case of Jio. First, Jio Sims were free, then their charges rose to Rs. 99, Rs. 199, and then Rs. 800! Privatisation is against the interests of the country. We are paying 18% GST on agricultural equipment, on education. This is all privatisation!
He appealed to all comrades to fight against privatisation, assuring that he himself will be on the frontlines. The kisan andolan gave strength to agitations across the country. More than 700 kisans died. But still, no minimum support price law has been implemented. He emphasized that we will have to muster the courage to oppose the government.
The Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) is a fraud done with the youth. NMOPS will oppose it strongly. Shri Bandhu expressed the hope that unions will support this agitation and we will continue fighting unitedly.
Shri C. Srikumar, General Secretary of All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF), said that AIDEF and WFTU wholeheartedly support electricity workers, whose united struggle shows that workers have prioritized people’s welfare irrespective of their union affiliations.
Shri Srikumar stated that the government is pushing for public-private partnership (PPP) and national monetisation pipeline (NMP). These policies are made to allow the sale of public property to corporate houses and crony capitalists. Rs. 2.62 lakh crore have been reduced from the budget given to railways even though the number of trains and passengers are increasing and every day there are accidents. This is because they are pushing privatisation of railway activities. UPS and NPS are also a form of privatisation. Pension is being privatised, and the money of state government workers, teachers, etc. is being used to gamble in the stock market.
Sharing the experience of corporatisation in BSNL, he said that more than 1 lakh workers have taken VRS. Their pension has not been updated as per the 7th CPC. The CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) Principal Bench said that pension should be updated, but the government filed an appeal against this judgment in the Delhi High Court. Pensioners have to go to court at this age, isn’t this the effect of privatisation? Ordnance factories were corporatised 3 years ago, there is no work load in these factories now. Government companies cannot compete with private ones.
In defence, DRDO has been given a budget of Rs. 26,816 crores. Of this, Rs. 14,923 crore is allotted to private participation. That is, DRDO will develop technology for the country’s defence and security and allocate so much money to encourage private companies to get involved in their projects and use DRDO’s facilities!
Privatisation will affect the people. Smart meters are created to exploit the public. The benefit is only to corporates and crony capitalists. This is not only the struggle of electricity workers. This is also the struggle of rail, defence, oil, petrol, state government workers and workers of other sectors. All should organize a strong agitation against privatisation. We have to go to all nooks and crannies and educate the people. This is our responsibility. Otherwise, we cannot save the public sector. All peasants, youth, women should join. Only then there will be some pressure on the government.
Shri Inder Singh Badhana, National Secretary of All India Road Transport Workers Federation (AIRTWF), informed that protests were held in more than 10,000 places in Haryana on 1 February against the privatisation of the Chandigarh discom. Transport workers supported electricity workers’ struggle.
The government is implementing different ways of privatisation in different states. In transport, 90% work is in the unorganized sector, including goods transport, lorries, private buses, school/college buses, and state buses. In Kerala, there were more than 20,000 state transport buses before COVID, and now there are only 8000 buses. This is a big attack of privatisation. In goods carriers, more than 20% trucks are missing from the roads. Small operators are under pressure. There is even a new rule in the market that you can’t get work without being attached to aggregators like Ola, Uber, Rapido, and Porter. So just like that, these aggregators are getting 30% profits. Rates of GST as well as toll have increased. Toll of Rs. 50 is now of more than Rs. 1000. Toll collection is a practice from British times!
In 2018, Haryana road transport workers went on a historic strike for 18 days to oppose privatisation. The government imposed ESMA. Shri Badhana said that cases were filed against him in 13 districts and he was taken under custody for 14 days. Some other workers were also arrested. However, with the support of citizens, the strike was successful. Now, electronic buses operated by private operators are being brought. However, each bus will cost Rs. 15,000-18,000 per day, and this money will be taken from the people. Additionally, existing bus stands, which are built using public money, will be used by these buses. To oppose such privatisation, transport workers will organize a Sansad March on 24 March in Delhi.
Shri Badhana emphasized that electricity is a fundamental public service and Haryana transport workers support the struggle.
Shri J.N. Shah, Central Vice President of All India Loco Running Staff Association (AILRSA), said that healthcare, education, banking, insurance were among the first sectors to be privatised. This was not done overnight. He asked, what were the things that enabled this privatisation? Where did workers fall short in taking ordinary people into confidence?
Today, freight and passengers transported by the railways have increased manifold. Railways are carrying about 1400-1500 million tons of freight and about 3 crore passengers every day. However, the manpower in railways has reduced significantly. AILRSA conducted a census of loco pilots and assistant loco pilots, based on which the administration revised the vacancy figures to 14,000 posts in this category. Regular post holders are being reduced and private employees are being taken instead.
Shri Shah said that we have to clearly show the after-effects of privatisation to the people. The current government has created a very negative narrative of government employees. The reality is that loco pilots and assistant loco pilots have 10 hours of duty. More than 50% of ticketing, railway hospitals, railway schools, etc. have been privatised. Contract workers have been employed for these jobs. Around 80% of maintenance activities have been outsourced. These workers have no social security or minimum wages.
Supplying electricity is a social responsibility of the government. It is the prime responsibility of the government to provide railways, electricity, education, and healthcare. UP’s discoms may become a laboratory for privatisation and finishing off labour laws and social security. Shri Shah assured that AILRSA and railway employees will stand in solidarity with electricity workers’ struggle.
After the main speeches, the floor was opened for interventions. Shri Pohekar, a representative of the Pune People’s Struggle Committee Against Electricity Privatisation informed about their activities, mentioning that the booklet on smart meters has proven instrumental in going among the masses. In one intervention, it was strongly pointed out that women have to be brought to the forefront of the struggle. All main speakers and participants thanked AIFAP for organizing this important meeting and bringing various sectors together, true to its motto of “an attack on one is an attack on all!”