Power-sector employees plan to intensify their agitation against it, and have expressed discontent even in BJP-ruled Karnataka.
Published Aug 09, 2022 | 7:02 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 09, 2022 | 8:09 PM
Electricity workers protests at Vidyut Soudha, Khairatabad in Hyderabad on Monday, 8 August, 2022. (Supplied)
A day after the Union government tossed its highly controversial Electricity Amendment Bill to a standing committee after introducing it in the Lok Sabha, seething discontent against critical provisions of the Bill is now looming large across the country’s southern states.
Except for the BJP-ruled Karnataka, all the state governments in South India have already expressed strong disagreement with the Bill, which they claim destabilises the federal structure by allowing the Centre to use overriding powers to stop the supply of power to states that default on payments.
It also ensures private players a free hand in the electricity sector, with consumers getting the option to choose from several service providers, as in the case of telecom, they feel.
Though all the southern states witnessed massive protest marches involving workers and officials in the power sector on Monday, 8 August, no protest was seen anywhere on Tuesday as it was a declared public holiday because of Muharram.
Employees’ unions said they would resume their protests on Wednesday without waiting for the standing committee’s recommendations.
While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to the Union government saying the Bill was an assault on India’s federal structure, Kerala’s Power Minister K Krishnankutty urged for a large-scale unity among the regional parties against the Bill as it would undermine the authority of the state governments.
Telangana Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy, who expressed the state’s reservations to Union Power Minister RK Singh during a recent video conference, was of the view that the Bill would adversely impact farmers and domestic consumers of lower strata.
Telangana believes that provisions of the Bill would harm the interests of farmers currently availing subsidy and cross-subsidy in power tariffs, as well as small domestic consumers who use hardly 200 units a month.
Strongly opposing the Bill, members of the Telangana Electricity Employees Joint Action Committee (TEEJAC) vowed to intensify their agitation in the coming days.
Telangana Electricity Engineers Association (TEEA) Convenor and All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) Secretary General T Ratnakar Rao pointed out other problems.
He told South First: “If new services and consumers shift to private companies, there will be more supply and less demand for ground-level workers, like those who perform meter dealing and bill collection. They will thus have to be laid off.”
Rao also confirmed that the protests would continue.
“The Bill has now been referred to the standing committee. Until and unless it makes certain modifications regarding multiple licenses and clauses meant for privatization, we will continue our agitation.”
As per reports from Karnataka, employees and officials of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) and Hubballi Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) have expressed extreme discontent against the Bill, and warned against the impacts of forcible privatisation of the energy sector of the country.
KPTCL Employees Union president RH Lakshmipathy told South First: “The Bill has been introduced in Parliament in haste with a plan to completely privatise the whole power sector. We staged a demonstration in a district but soon will come up with strong resistance against the decision of Karnataka.”
He added, “There have been attempts to do away with the government hold over the power sector, but they met with widespread opposition and agitation. A similar stance would be taken in the days to come.”
The KTPCL is the state’s sole state-owned electricity transmission and distribution company, and is under the chairmanship of the chief minister.
Power sector employees organised demonstrations against the Bill across Andhra Pradesh on Monday under the banner of the Joint Action Committee of the Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Employees (APSEE-JAC).
The protests were in response to a call from the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE).
The JAC insisted that the Bill was aimed at privatising electricity supply and would be detrimental to the interests of the consumers.
The Centre rushed the draft Bill without consulting employees, and DMK leaders in Tamil Nadu recalled that their parliamentary party leader TR Balu opposed the Bill raising the state’s concerns as soon as it was taken up for discussion in the Lok Sabha.
Further, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji alleged that the Union government tabled the Bill fully knowing its possible repercussions.
“If the Bill is passed without any changes on its content, it would affect many, including farmers and weavers. Giving subsidies to the poor would also become difficult,” the minister told reporters.
He further claimed that the Bill would also strip the powers of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Balaji used the example of a car to highlight how the private sector could enter power distribution through the proposed legislation and use the infrastructure built by the state-run Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) for free.
“You are buying your car by taking a loan. You will pay the EMI. But imagine if someone comes and says that they will fill diesel and use your car? This is what certain provisions of the Bill mean,” he claimed.
Farmers association, under the banner of the United Farmers’ Front, took out a rally in Thanjavur on Monday and burnt a copy of the Bill.
Farmers’ groups fear that the Bill would pave the way for private power distribution companies to gain control of the sector, which could threaten the free electricity scheme given to farmers.
Similarly, over 50,000 TANGEDCO employees belonging to different associations staged a protest outside the company’s offices due to the fear of privatisation. The DMK’s Labour Progressive Federation members were also part of the sit-in protest.
Meanwhile, the NCCOEEE claimed 1 million workers joined the nationwide Cease Work Action on Monday. The country has a total workforce of 2.7 million in the power sector.
A workers’ protest against amended electricity bill in Thiruvananthapuram. (Supplied)
In Kerala, over 25,000 power sector workers and officers took part in the protests held under the aegis of the Kerala chapter of the NCCOEEE.
Senior leaders, including MP and CITU state general secretary Elamaram Kareem, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran and INTUC leader R Chandrasekharan, addressed the protest meetings.
“The Bill allows private players to reap profits without any capital investment. It permits multiple players in power distribution who can use the existing infrastructure of the state-run KSEB. It has far-reaching consequences, such as denial of subsidies to farmers, a situation which would ultimately lead to a rise in the prices of essential commodities and a food crisis,” observed Kerala minister Krishnankutty.
The workers demanded that the Bill be withdrawn in its present form. If the government wants to bring it, it should be referred to the standing committee so that all the stakeholders, especially the ordinary electricity consumers and power workers, could submit their viewpoints.
Unions alleged that the Central government had not conducted any talks with consumers and representatives of power-sector employees. There is a lot of anger among the employees due to the unilateral action of the Central government, they said.
Meanwhile, the AIPEF pointed to a specific provision in the Bill: that licences would be granted to multiple distribution companies in the same area. It stated that new distribution companies from the private sector would supply electricity using the public sector network.
The Bill also had a provision that the “universal power supply obligation” — to ensure electricity to all segments of consumers — would apply only to government companies.
The AIPEF also said private sector suppliers would profit because of the Bill by giving electricity only to profitable industrial and commercial consumers as per their wish.
It added that maintaining the distribution network would be the responsibility of government companies. This way, private companies would profit by paying only some wheeling charges. As a result, government companies would become financially insolvent, it argued.
According to the Bill, subsidies and cross-subsidies would be abolished so that the total cost of electricity could be recovered from all categories of consumers, the AIPEF said.
(With Shilpa Nair in Chennai, Ajay Tomar in Hyderabad, and Saurav Kumar in Bengaluru)
