More than a lakh employees of Maharashtra’s power sector companies are going on strike for three days to protest privatization, which will disrupt the supply system.
Employees from all three companies are involved in the January 4 to 6 aggitation: Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MahaDiscom), Maharashtra State Power Generation Co Ltd (MahaGenco), and Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co Ltd (MahaTransco).
The government of Maharashtra, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, has invoked the provisions of the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) and has ordered people to return to work.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the portfolios of Home, Finance, and Energy, has called a meeting with top officials to discuss the developing situation.
The Shinde-Fadnavis government has put in place an emergency plan to keep people from being inconvenienced.
Various union officials have also been invited to meet with the government. The agitation is being led by the Maharashtra Rajya Karmachari, Adhikari, and Abhiyanta Sangharsh Samiti, an action committee of power company unions that has called for a strike.
More than 30 unions representing drivers, wiremen, engineers, and other employees have come together to oppose the privatisation of state-owned power companies. Last month, the Maharashtra Rajya Karmachari, Adhikari, and Abhiyanta Sangharsh Samiti, an action committee of 31 power company unions, began an agitation over their various demands.
Their main demand is that no ‘parallel distribution licence’ be granted to Adani Group’s power subsidiary. An Adani Group company applied for a licence to expand its power distribution business into new areas of Mumbai in November of last year. Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai Ltd, a subsidiary of Adani Transmission, had applied to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a parallel licence for power distribution in the Mahavitaran areas of Bhandup, Mulund, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Taloja, and Uran. ation over their various demands last month.
According to Krushna Bhoir, General Secretary of the Maharashtra State Electricity Workers’ Federation, nearly 86,000 employees, officers, and engineers from the three power companies, as well as 42,000 contract employees and security guards, will go on strike for 72 hours to protest privatisation. He said the protest was going on peacefully across the state, and that the protesting employees were sitting in pandals set up outside their workplaces.
Meanwhile, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has requested that the Shinde-Fadnavis government step in.
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