Power Discom Unions Call Off Strike After Maha Govt Assures No Privatisation Of State-Run Firms

State power companies called off a 3-day strike after the government's assurance that they will not be privatized. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said a communication gap led to the strike.

Employees of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited and others protest in Thane over alleged privatization of state-owned discoms.

Source : PTI

Hours after employees of three state-owned power companies in Maharashtra started a three-day strike on Wednesday, the agitation was called off following the government's assurance that the utilities will not be privatized.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the energy portfolio, said the government had no intention to privatize state-run power utilities.

The decision to call off the strike was announced in the afternoon by Sanjay Thakur, president of the Subordinate Engineers Association, one of the unions participating in the 72-hour-long stir over a host of demands, following a meeting with Fadnavis.

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (Mahavitaran), Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co Ltd (Mahapareshan) and Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Co Ltd (Mahanirmiti) are the state-owned power firms whose employees had gone on strike earlier in the day.

Fadnavis said a "communication gap" between the state government and agitating trade unions led to the stir. "If a meeting had taken place between the state government and trade union representatives earlier, the strike wouldn't have happened," he said. The deputy chief minister said the state government doesn't want any state-run company to be privatised.

"One private company (belonging to Adani group) has applied for a 'parallel distribution licence'. I want to make it clear that we are not supporting privatisation of these (power) companies,'' he said.

Maharashtra Rajya Karmachari, Adhikari and Abhiyanta Sangharsh Samiti, an action committee of 31 unions of power companies, started an agitation last month over their various demands. Their major demand was not to issue a 'parallel distribution licence' to the Adani Group's power subsidiary as they apprehended that grant of the licence would have led to the eventual privatization of state-run power firms.

In November last year, Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Transmission, applied to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a parallel licence for power distribution under the jurisdiction of Mahavitaran in Bhandup, Mulund, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Taloja and Uran areas.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)