People's Democracy

ELECTRICITY BILL 2001

Power Workers Stage One-Day Strike

ELECTRICITY employees and engineers throughout the country expressed their strong resentment against the Electricity Bill 2001when it was to be introduced in parliament on April 7. The protestors were of the opinion that the bill would open up the electricity sector to private operators and thus result in escalation of power tariff for the people, intensify the power crisis and also lead to denial of electricity to rural areas.

  In Maharashtra, Punjab Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, electricity workers staged a walkout. In other states too, different forms of protest actions were undertaken, such as demonstrations, gate meetings and public rallies, badge wearing, pen down, etc.

  In Delhi, a demonstration was organised before the parliament, demanding withdrawal  of the bill.  In the meeting held at Jantar Mantar, members of parliament Basudev Acharya and Jibon Roy, besides the trade union leaders E Balanandan and B S Meel etc, addressed the demonstrating electricity employees.

On the day, engineers of various state electricity boards also staged walkouts to register protest against the Electricity Bill 2001.

  The Electricity Employees Federation of India (EEFI) has thanked the workers for expressing their protest without any disruption in power supply and urged the people and workers of India to rally against this dangerous and retrograde legislation.

 The EEFI statement said the experience the world over shows that if this basic industry is privatised, it would escalate the power charges, which will have an all-round adverse impact on industrial, agricultural and developmental activities. The experience in India too shows that wherever attempts at privatisation were made, the cost of power was hiked to unbearable levels. Many manufacturing industries in the country are not able to continue production because of this. The attempt to remove the existing cross subsidisation to provide subsidy to the rural areas, would have an adverse impact on our agricultural sector too. Therefore this bill is against our national interests. That was why electricity employees and engineers staged a strike and a walkout, respectively, opposing this measure.

CITU SUPPORT TO POWER WORKERS

Earlier a statement issued by the CITU secretariat had welcomed the decision by the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE) to go in for a countrywide walkout/strike in the power sector in protest against the Electricity Bill 2001 on the day it was to be taken up for discussion in parliament.

  The CITU said the Electricity Bill 2001 has been designed on the Fund/Bank dictated model to trifurcate the electricity boards in several states in order to hand over the generation, transmission and distribution of power to separate entities, with the ultimate and declared motive of their privatisation. If this bill were made a law, it would throw this vital public utility sector into a mess and make electricity costlier and practically unaffordable for the common people.  The power consuming industries are also going to be hit hard owing to a hike in the cost of power. Besides, the synergy between generation, transmission and distribution, which is of vital importance to keep this vital public utility sector in an efficient and economical operating condition, will also be jeopardised --- much to the detriment of the entire economy and the interests of common people. This has already been proved conclusively in the states where the state governments have taken the initiative for trifurcation and privatisation of power sector, as in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and other places, and also in the case of Enron. Therefore, the CITU said the initiative taken by the electricity employees’ federations and associations to oppose this retrograde move through struggle deserved all-out support by the democratic and trade union movements.

 The CITU had also called upon electricity workers all over India to join the said strike/walkout against privatisation on April 7, irrespective of affiliations. (INN)