12 lakh power staff, engineers threaten to go on strike

Despite the opposition of power employees and engineers to the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2014, it has been put on agenda of the Lok Sabha and can come up anytime between July 21 and August 13, Chairman of All-India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) Shailendra Dubey said on Monday.

 “Hence, power staff throughout the country have been alerted to observe strike/work boycott on that day,” he said.

Opposing the bill, Dubey alleged the amendments were not based on ground realities and were in the interest of private players. “This will make state power utilities financially bankrupt as the amendments in the Electricity Bill seeks to segregate the power distribution network from electricity supply business...this is basically anti-people and does not look at root cause of power sector ailments,” he said.

Stressing that 18 states have already opposed the Bill, Dubey said the Centre is bent upon passing the Bill to facilitate corporate houses. “This is not acceptable to power employees and engineers,” he warned.

The National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers has already served the strike/ work boycott notice to PM  with copies to Union Power Minister, Union Labour Minister and CMs of all states, he said.