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States » NorthPosted at: Oct 6 2020 8:01PM


UP power employees withdraw strike after govt defers privatisation move

Lucknow Oct 6(UNI) Power employees have withdrawn the call for indefinite strike as the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to defer the issue of privatisation of the Purvanchal Power Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) for three months till January 15, 2021.
The state energy minister Srikant Sharma agreed for rollback of the privatisation after talk with the leaders of power employees – the agreement could not be signed as the chairman of the UPPCL Arvind Kumar Singh refused to sign the agreement on Monday leading to breakdown of talks.
The government announced the decisions here on Tuesday after the chief minister Yogi Adityanath summoned the top officials of the UP Power corporation in the morning and took stock of the situation as the power employees had boycotted the work on Monday leading to disruption in thermal power generation and long hours of supply breakdown in several districts as the employees declined to attend the fault in power distribution network.
The energy minister Srikant Sharma said here that the strike by the power employees is not in public interest and moreover causing disruption in power supply is illegal so unacceptable. He urged the power employees to have patience and join their duties from Wednesday as the government is working for an amicable solution to the issues raised by the employees.
The work boycott by the power employees on Monday had seriously impacted power supply in 30 districts of eastern UP. The PVVNL, a wholly owned subsidiary of the UP Power corporation Limited, control and manages the power distribution in eastern UP districts. The call for indefinite strike was given by power employee’s joint action committee and UP Power officers association representing the schedule caste and OBCs employees of the UPPCL.
The disruption in power supply had created water crisis in several districts in as many as 30 districts including Lucknow. Power supply to the official residence of the chief minister and several ministers was also disrupted on Monday. In many places of Lucknow the supply breakdown was not attended by the employees for over 20 hours.
The Union government’s decision to fast track the privatisation of the power distribution companies had prompted the power employees to go on indefinite strike. The Centre on September 23 the Standard bidding document (SDB) for the first time and uploaded it on its website. The SDB is the guiding document for states looking to offer discom to private companies. This is for the first time that the central government has drafted guiding SBD for discom’s privatisation. It is in line with the Centre’s efforts to improve the operations and finances of the discoms in various states. In 2019, the union power ministry had suggested several private franchise models to the states for the power distribution sector. In May under the `Atamnirbhar package’ the central government had announced that the power distribution in all union territories will be privatised. Currently power distribution has been privatised in few cities- Delhi, Mumbai, Agra and Ahmadabad.
The process of privatisation of PVVNL was initiated in June soon after the package was announced in May. The accumulated losses of the PVVNL are Rs 1,500 crore as of March 2020 and Aggregate and technical and commercial loss of 37.9 per cent. As of March 2020, the total net loss of all five discoms in the state stood at Rs 819 crore, according to the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) portal. The state’s average aggregate technical and commercial loss is 30 per cent - higher than the national average of 19.19 per cent.
The Purvanchal Nigam controls and manages electricity supply in eastern UP-- Ghazipur, Chandauli, Jaunpur, Varanasi,Sant Rabidas Nagar, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Mau, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur ,Ballia, Deoria, Kushi Nagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar, Basti, Sidharth Nagar, Allahabad, Pratapgarh, Fatehpur, and Kaushambi.
In 2018, UP had announced it would offer five cities, including capital city Lucknow and Varanasi, to a private distribution franchisee. The move however failed to take off following the stiff resistance by the power employees and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2009, KESCo was offered to Torrent Power through a franchisee model. Torrent was supposed to manage the billing, connections, and even build additional infrastructure, while KESCO remained the owner. However, Torrent could never make headway due to repeated protests by Opposition parties and power employee and the deal was cancelled in 2015.
Unlike the franchisee model, privatisation of discoms involves vesting ownership of the business with the private player. The company will manage power purchase, build infrastructure, manage billing and collection, and adhere to pre-decided targets of bringing down losses.
UNI MB JAL 2000
Tags: #UP power employees withdraw strike after govt defers privatisation move
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