Powermen hold protest meetings against proposal for privatisation

Power employees and engineers organised statewide meetings and peaceful demonstrations on Saturday, protesting against the move to privatise the Agra and Varanasi distribution companies (discoms).
The meetings were held on a call by the Uttar Pradesh Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti.
They demanded a rollback of privatisation proposals and called for a transparent valuation of power assets worth billions of rupees by a committee comprising employee and consumer representatives.
They also urged the government to ensure consumer and employee consultations before initiating any privatisation process.
“Power employees across all districts, project headquarters, and the state capital, gathered after office hours to voice their dissent. Employees emphasised that electricity consumers and employees are the largest stakeholders in the power sector, and their perspectives must be prioritised in any decision-making process,” Sangharsh Samiti convenor Shailendra Dubey said.
In Lucknow, a major protest was held at the Hydel Field Hostel on Rana Pratap Marg. It witnessed participation from a large number of employees from Shakti Bhawan, Madhyanchal headquarters, LESA, and other offices. The event was addressed by key committee leaders, including Rajeev Singh, Jitendra Singh Gurjar, Girish Pandey, Mahendra Rai, Suhail Abid, P.K. Dixit, Rajendra Ghildiyal, Chandra Bhushan Upadhyay, and others.
The committee leaders argued that privatisation adversely affects the service conditions of employees and harms common domestic consumers, farmers, and economically weaker sections. They highlighted the failures of privatisation in Agra and Greater Noida, emphasising the need to review these experiments before considering further privatization.
“Torrent, a private company distributing power in Agra supplies electricity to UPPCL at ₹4.25 per unit, which UPPCL resells at ₹5.55 per unit, incurring a loss of ₹3,000 crore over the past 14 years. In contrast, KESCO generates ₹6.80 per unit in revenue, underscoring the failure of the privatisation model in Agra,” they argued.