Call of Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC), 22 June 2025
The heroic struggle against electricity privatisation in Uttar Pradesh has been going on since nearly 200 days. It is a struggle not only in defence of the interests of the workers of the two distribution companies being targeted for privatisation – namely, Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam. It is also a struggle in defence of the interests of peasants and all other working people who need affordable power supply.
Tremendous efforts have been taken by the electricity workers towards establishing mass contact with the electricity consumers and involving family members in this struggle. In almost all major cities of Uttar Pradesh, Mahapanchayats to oppose this privatization drive have been conducted successfully in which tens of thousands of electricity consumers have participated. A massive Bijli Mahapanchayat has taken place on 22 June in Lucknow, organised jointly by workers’unions, kisan unions, consumer groups and other people’s organisations.
Electricity is a basic necessity of life in modern conditions. The availability of reliable power supply at an affordable rate is a universal human right. It is the duty of the state to ensure that this right is guaranteed for all. Privatisation is aimed at converting electricity into a source of maximum capitalist profits. It is a program that will lead not only to the loss of jobs and more intense exploitation of electricity workers, but also to electricity becoming unaffordable to most of the peasants and other working people.
It has been reported that the UP government aims to complete the privatisation of the two distribution companies (Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal) by Diwali 2025. At least eight capitalist monopolies have expressed interest in bidding for a majority stake in these companies. These include the Tatas, Adani group and the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group. These monopoly capitalists are seeking to become 51% owners, while the state-owned UPPCL will retain 49% ownership.
After united action by the workers, the UP government had given written assurances in 2018 and 2020 to the representative associations and unions of the electricity employees that no “reforms/ privatisation” of the distribution companies would be undertaken without taking them into confidence.” The latest move of the UP Government is in complete violation of these written assurances.
The electricity workers have pointed out that UPPCL is fudging the figures to exaggerate the losses of the distribution businesses. This is being done in order to justify handing over the public companies and their assets to private companies at a price far less than its true value of tens of thousands of crores.
UPPCL has issued a draconian order empowering the company managers to unilaterally dismiss, remove and reduce the rank of power employees and engineers who participate in the protests against privatisation. The UP state government has also imposed ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) to browbeat the fighting workers. This has met with defiance by the workers and a warning that such harassment will not be silently tolerated. They have declared that the 27 lakh (2.7 million) power sector workers across the country will take to the streets if their comrades in UP are attacked.
The struggle against electricity privatisation in Uttar Pradesh has been supported by the power sector workers of numerous states and union territories, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh and Puducherry. Further, 16 kisan organisations, and organisations of traders, students, organisation for people’s rights, market workers, and other workers’ organisations have come out in support.
The attempt of the ruling capitalist class to privatise electricity distribution has been going on for a very long time, beginning in the decade of the 1990s with World Bank support. It has met with limited successs, only in a few states. The attempt to introduce a central law called the Electricity Amendment Bill has not succeeded so far, due to strong opposition by both workers and peasants. The ruling class is once again concentrating on pushing this program in some specific states. The struggle in Uttar Pradesh is of special significance because it is the state with the largest distribution networks in the country
The struggle against the privatisation of electricity distribution is a common struggle directed against the monopoly capitalists and their agenda of privatising public assets and services to fulfil their greed for maximum profits.
Kamgar Ekta Committee calls on all sections of the people to extend their unconditional support for the struggle against the privatisation of Dakshinanchal and Purvanchal Vitaran Nigam in Uttar Pradesh. We demand an immediate halt to the anti-national, anti-worker, anti-kisan and anti-people privatisation program, and immediate withdrawal of the draconian service order imposed on the workers of UP electricity companies.