Amid Ban On Strike By Govt Employees, Power Discom Workers To Begin Anti-Privatisation Campaign Today

Government employees in UP, prohibited from striking, will protest privatisation of power discoms PUVVNL and DVVNL from December 14-18 through public meetings, and awareness campaigns.

Electricity department workers are protesting the imminent privatisation of discoms.

Source : Pixabay

With a ban on strikes for government employees, the workers in the power discoms in Uttar Pradesh have decided to run a public campaign against privatisation from December 14 to 18. The protest is against handing over Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PUVVNL) and Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL) that distribute power in Agra and Varanasi to private players.

On Thursday, protest meetings were held in different cities of Uttar Pradesh, while on Friday, anti-privatisation day will be observed in the entire state. Apart from this, a public relations campaign will be run against privatisation from December 14 to 18, in which the members and officials of the State Electricity Council will meet the public representatives and hand over the memorandum to them and appeal to protest against privatisation.

A public awareness program was run on Thursday against privatisation, in which employees were warned about the danger of privatization. Employees and their family members also joined the protests at different places in the states and at many places their family members also joined them. Vidyut Karmchari Ekta Sangharsh Samiti accused the Power Corporation management of creating an environment of industrial unrest in the energy corporations regarding privatisation.

The committee officials alleged that there is a plan to hand over the valuable land worth billions of rupees of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal Corporations to private houses for just Re 1 and this should be disclosed. Uttar Pradesh Power Officers Association held a meeting against the imminent privatisation. In a statement, it said "It is not right to give both the corporations to private players. It would be better to give it to the association. The association will rescue both the corporations from losses and hand them over to the government."