After four days of successful satyagraha at Jantar Mantar New Delhi from Tuesday to Friday, power engineers and employees up in arms against the complete privatization of the power sector, are now gearing up for the work boycott on August 10, said V K Gupta spokesperson of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF).

The Modi government has listed the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to be introduced in Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon session. What electricity
employees fear about the contentious Bill, is the move towards privatization of power distribution across the country which is already underway in a few
states and union territories.

A large number of employees staged protests despite the fact that permission to hold a dharna on the last three days was refused by the government. On Friday Sghailendra Dubey Chairman, Rathnakar Rao Secretary-General and T Jayanthi President TNEBEA were the main speakers.

V K Gupta said that many provisions of Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 are anti-people and anti-employee and if enacted it will have far-reaching adverse consequences.
He demanded that the Bill should be referred to the standing committee on the energy of Parliament as Power Ministry has refused to discuss the draft electricity (amendment ) bill 2021 with power engineers and employees. He said that the main stakeholders

The move to abolish the cross-subsidy in a time-bound manner and proposing a
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to such consumers by the state governments will snatch away the rights of access to electricity for farmers and poor domestic consumers.
The Central Govt seems more concerned over the profitability of private power companies than protecting consumer interests.