GUWAHATI:
As many as 15,000 power sector employees and engineers across Assam stopped work and held demonstrations in protest against the Electricity Amendment Bill 2022, introduced in Lok Sabha by Union minister RK Singh on August 8.
“On the call of the National Co-ordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE), electricity employees and engineers stopped work and demonstrated vigorously at Bijuli Bhawan at Paltan Bazar in Guwahati,” Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees Engineers and Pensioners (CCEEEP) joint convenor Dipak Kr Saha, Pramod Chandra Das and Amit Kar said in a statement.
After introducing the Bill, amid protests from Opposition members in the Lok Sabha, the Union minister urged Speaker Om Birla to refer it to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for wider consultations.
“The Bill will end all subsidies to power consumers, which would affect commoners, especially farmers and the downtrodden. The protests have been staged in every electrical circle, division, sub-division, power project of the state protesting against the Central government’s anti-people power policy,” CCEEEP said in the statement.
CCEEEP joint convenor Pramod Chandra Das, leader of diploma engineer Iftikhar Hussain, leader of power engineers Dipankar Burman and Shahnawaz Ali, leader of supply workers Nayanjyoti Sharma and Dhanajyoti Chakraborty addressed the gathering in front of Bijuli Bhawan.
“The movement against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 will be conducted till it is repealed,” the statement said.
The CCEEEP said the Bill has been introduced in Parliament “in an undemocratic manner to complete privatisation of the energy sector”.
“The Central government in a letter to the United Kisan Morcha last year had promised that the Bill would not be introduced in the Parliament without having detailed talks with the farmers and other stakeholders. The government has not held any talks with the biggest stakeholders, the consumers and representatives of power sector employees, to date. Due to this unilateral action of the central government, there is a lot of anger among the employees,” it said.
The CCEEEP pointed out that there is a provision in the Bill that licences will be given to more than one distribution company in the same area. New distribution companies from the private sector will supply electricity using the public sector network.
There is also a provision in the bill that the ‘universal power supply obligation’ to provide electricity to all categories of consumers will only apply to government companies, while private sector suppliers will earn profit by giving electricity only to profitable industrial and commercial consumers as per their wish, it also said.
The CCEEEP also pointed out that maintaining the distribution network will be the responsibility of government companies. In this way, private companies will earn profit by paying only some wheeling charges. As a result, government companies will become financially insolvent, it argued.
According to the bill, subsidies and cross-subsidies will be abolished so that the full cost of electricity can be recovered from all categories of consumers, the CCEEEP added.