Power engineers to go on a token strike on Feb 3 against privatisation of Discoms

Engineers of the power sector would go on a one day token strike across the country on February 3 to protest against the move to privatise distribution companies by the central government, the All India Power Engineers' Federation (AIPEF) has said.

'Power engineers across the country shall resort to token work boycott and hold protest meetings on 3rd February against privatisation policies of the Government of India,' AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta said in a statement.

Shailendra Dubey, the Chairman of AIPEF, in a letter to the Prime Minister, stated that power engineers and engineers are agrieved over the Central Government’s move towards the privatization of the power sector through Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, & Standard Bidding Document for total privatisation of distribution of electricity.

Power engineers are opposing conversion of public monopoly to private monopoly, he said, adding that the policy of privatisation was slowly destroying the public sector across the country while giving huge benefits to selected corporates.

The AIPEF expressed solidarity to struggling organisations of peasants whose one of the main demands is withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020. It also demanded the 'withdrawal process of privatization of electricity from public the sector to private companies in states and union territories'.

The other demands include scraping of electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 & standard bidding document for total privatization of distribution of electricity and reintegrate all power utilities in states with function components of generation, transmission, and distribution.