Haryana power employees’ associations have issued a three-day notice to the Haryana Government to go on a statewide strike from December 1 to December 3 against the proposed privatisation of the power sector in the state. It also warned that any further move towards privatisation could trigger an indefinite strike.
In a letter to CM Nayab Singh Saini, the Samyukta Sangharsh Morcha (SSM) said power employees and engineers would go on a strike if the government failed to accept their demands before December 1. The employees have termed the proposed action ‘Strike 2.0’, as they had deferred the earlier call for strike following assurances from Power Minister Anil Vij. They said the government has failed to address their demands.
The morcha said it had earlier served a strike notice for August 11 to 13 but postponed it for two months after a meeting with Vij on August 10. However, they alleged that not a single demand had been accepted.
The SSM has opposed the proposed formation of Haryana Agro DISCOM, the granting of a parallel electricity distribution licence to a private company in Gurugram and Nuh, Tariff Based Competitive Bidding projects and the installation of smart meters. They have demanded that all such privatisation measures be scrapped.
It said the process for granting a parallel distribution licence to Eleven Power Private Limited in Gurugram and Nuh was pending before the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC). It claimed that its representatives had urged the commission not to grant such a licence in public interest, but the commission had indicated that it could issue a parallel licence.
The employees’ body also questioned the need for a separate Agro DISCOM, arguing that agricultural feeders in Haryana were already separate and that work relating to them was being undertaken through tenders while neither farmers nor power employees had raised this demand for creation of a new company.
The body will hold a state-level convention of farmers, workers, employees, engineers and consumers in Rohtak on October 17.
