Protests against privatising power supply gets louder

Hyderabad: Protests against the Centre’s move to privatise power supply systems are getting louder, with the latest being reported from Puducherry, where the Electricity Department employees and engineers have been on strike. Irate employees, who have been on strike for four days now, raised slogans against the Centre and threatened to intensify their stir if […]

Hyderabad: Protests against the Centre’s move to privatise power supply systems are getting louder, with the latest being reported from Puducherry, where the Electricity Department employees and engineers have been on strike.

Irate employees, who have been on strike for four days now, raised slogans against the Centre and threatened to intensify their stir if it did not relent. They said the decision would adversely affect over 3,000 employees of the department.

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The administration has already called for tenders to privatise the electricity distribution system. The union leaders took part in discussions with the Puducherry Energy Secretary and officials over the issue, but the talks ended inconclusively prompting the staff to go on strike.

The employees alleged that the privatisation was part of the Centre’s attempt to privatise public sector undertakings across the country as a precursor to which it had brought the Electricity (Amendment) Bill-2022.

Reacting to the Puducherry administration’s decision, Telangana State Power Employees Joint Action Committee convenor P Ratnakar Rao said 20 lakh employees and engineers from electricity departments in all States would go on strike if the decision to privatise the distribution system in Puducherry was not withdrawn.

Expressing solidarity to the striking employees in Puducherry, the committee staged a demonstration in front of the TSSPDCL office here on Saturday.