Telangana: Power employees bodies gear up for protest against Adani’s entry

The Telangana State United Electricity Employees Union, which is opposing the move of the government, has asked its members to be prepared for a massive agitation against the privatisation of power services in the State.

Hyderabad: Amid reports that the State government was planning to handover collection of power bills in the Old City to the Adani Group, the Telangana State United Electricity Employees Union, which is opposing the move of the government, has asked its members to be prepared for a massive agitation against the privatisation of power services in the State.

Employees Union president K Eshwar Rao during a meeting told power staff that efforts were underway to transfer revenue collection and meter reading functions in the South Circle to a private company by the Telangana Southern Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TGSPDCL) management. He asked them to be prepared to launch a Statewide agitation against the government’s move.

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Citing transmission losses, the State government was planning to handover the meter reading and bill collections to Adani group, he said, adding that the idea of handing over electricity supply to private companies was not in the interest of power utilities, consumers and employees and that the Discom employees, engineers and artisans were very much worried and restive over the issue.

The proposal of privatisation of Discoms on the pretext of high AT&C losses was improper as the private companies run the system with profit motto causing additional burden on consumers, Eshwar Rao said. He noted that the privatization and urban distribution franchisee model have miserably failed in all the places in the country, hence trying the same formula in Hyderabad city was not in the interest of the consumers and power employees.

According to Discoms officials, while normal transmission losses in the Hyderabad city were around 10 percent, the South Circle, which covers major parts of Old City, suffers from a staggering 40 to 42 percent loss, primarily due to theft.

The Telangana Power Employees Joint Action Committee (TGPEJAC) recently submitted a representation to TGSPDCL Chairman and Managing Director Musharaff Ali Faruqui urging him to take up the issue with the government and pursue it to drop any proposal of handing over of power supply and bill collection in Hyderabad South Circle or any part of DISCOM to Adani Group or any other private company.

The power employees union warned that it would escalate the agitation if the government did not drop the privatisation move. The union recently held a lunch-hour demonstration at the TGSPDCL office to protest the privatisation move.