Power Engineers and Power Employees have finally succeeded in stalling Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018 in 16th Lok Sabha. 13th February 2019 was the last day of 16th Lok Sabha and with last meeting of 16th Lok Sabha over, now Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018 died it's own death. As per rule any Bill placed in Lok Sabha which could not be passed in that Lok Sabha is known as lapsed after the expiry of term of that Lok Sabha. So now Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 and amended as 2018 is no more and stands lapsed. This is a historic event when one mighty Govt having full majority in Lok Sabha failed to rush through a Bill of it's choice and of top priority in it's full five year term due to stiff resistance of power engineers & working class.
Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 was tabled in Lok Sabha on 19th December 2014. Actually the agenda of segregation of carriage and content with the aim to privatise power supply was in election manifesto of BJP. Pushing forward it's election manifesto BJP Govt tabled the Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 on 19th December 2014. Bill was sent to standing committee of parliament on power. All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) submitted it's representation before standing committee. But Central Govt was bent upon to pass the Bill at any cost. Therefore Standing committee did not invite any of the power employees federations. Intention was very clear, Govt was in hurry to pass the Bill to pave the path for privatisation of power supply to facilitate selected well known private houses.
Accordingly we also finalised our strategy to fight it out.National Coordination Committee Of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE) is a platform of federations of all power employees & engineers of country. NCCOEEE decided to protest by resorting to LIGHTNING STRIKE during monsoon session of parliament in 2015 on the day whenever Bill is tabled but despite being on the agenda of parliament Bill could not be placed in monsoon session of parliament in 2015. Later on NCCOEEE served the notice of one day strike on 08th December 2015 to stall the Bill during winter session of parliament . We succeeded in our strategy and 08th Dec strike was averted after intervention of the then MoP Sri Piyush Goyal. Detailed talks were held with Sri Piyush Goyal in January 2016 and it was assured by him that Bill will not be passed in Budget session of 2016.
Although MoP did not issue any amended draft of Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 as was assured by Sri Piyush Goyal in talks with NCCOEEE but intention of Central Govt was never good and Central Govt tried its best in every session of parliament to rush through the Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2014 in it's original form. NCCOEEE continued with it's strategy that if Central Govt puts the Bill unilaterally in parliament then all 1.5 million power employees & engineers will resort to LIGHTNING STRIKE same day to register their protest. Every time we served the notice of LIGHTNING STRIKE to oppose this Bill and we succeeded.
Massive demonstration & protest of more than 20000 power employees and engineers at Kochi on 06th November 2016 at venue of all India power Ministers conference was really remarkable which forced Central Power Minister Piyush Goyal to hold meeting with NCCOEEE and to ensure power employees and engineers that further talks will be held and no unilateral step will be taken by Central Govt. This was historical event and turning point which forced Central Govt to rethink.
Sri R K Singh took over the charge of MoP in October 2017. AIPEF had discussions with Sri R K Singh in November 2017 but he failed to give any concrete assurance to hold back this draconian Bill. We continued with our strategy to oppose the Bill.
Finally amended draft in the name of Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018 was issued by MoP in September 2018. Amended draft of Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018 was nothing different than old draft Bill and was solely with the intention to segregate carriage & content to facilitate private houses.This time Central Govt had finally decided to rush through the Bill in winter session of parliament.
To prevent Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018 it was call of the hour to show our unity, strength and solidarity. NCCOEEE decided to resort to two days STRIKE / WORK BOYCOTT on 08th and 09th January 2019 across the country to prevent the unilateral rush through of the Bill. About 1.5 million Power Employees and Engineers exhibited their solidarity by observing two days STRIKE / WORK BOYCOTT on 08th and 09th January 2019 across the country. It was a grand success and exhibited expression of great enthusiasm. Particularly for power engineers it was unprecedented unity and solidarity show across the country. Power Engineers stood solidly against all victimizing tactics of Central and State Govt's like imposing ESMA and break of service etc.
It was due to our massive campaign and press publicity which forced MoP, Govt Of India to recognise our movement. MoP sent a letter dt 03 - 01 - 2019. Letter clearly states – " that proposed amendments have not been tabled in parliament and it is still under discussion / examination. Comments have been received from hundred stake holders, unions. These are being examined for further modification. Discussions with stakeholders may also be convened after preliminary compilation of comments/suggestions for fruitful discussion."
This is first time when present Modi Government recognised us as stake holders otherwise only industrial and commercial organisations / houses were stake holders in their eyes.
Since MoP had not given any clear assurance to withdraw Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018 & no commitment on other issues mainly integration of unbundled power utilities in States like KSEB LTD & HPSEB LTD, implementation of Old Pension Scheme & regularisation of contract workers, therefore NCCOEEE decided to go ahead with Work Boycott Protest & holding Demonstrations on 08 & 09 January 2019 across the country. MoP letter showed pressure of our massive mobilisation. This was the testing time for all of us. We successfully resorted to two days work boycott and proved our solidarity. We succeeded in creating mass awakening on other issues eg integration of all power utilities, old pension scheme and regularisation of contract workers.
Our continuous sustained mass mobilisation during last five years, several State level demonstrations / protests , two massive National level Rally at Delhi in 2015 & 2018, strategy to ensure LIGHTNING STRIKE protest during every session of parliament and finally successful two days grand success STRIKE / WORK BOYCOTT on 08th and 09th January 2019 was mainly instrumental in stalling this anti people, anti employee and anti power sector draconian Electricity(Amendment) Bill 2018.
We all know the motive behind the legislation was to PRIVATISE THE PROFITS & NATIONALISE THE LOSSES. The change in tariff policy was proposed to encourage privatisation and ensure guaranteed profits to private houses. It was a well thought design of Central Govt along with known private houses with hand in glove to pave the path of privatisation of profit making creamy consumers. It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Sri Nrendra Modi himself came out with this agenda during Delhi Assembly elections in January 2015 when he publicly declared that Central Govt is determined to give portability of electricity supply connection to power consumers similar to that of mobile phones. This was stated by PM time and again at other places also which shows how important was the issue of multiple supply licencees for Central Govt.
It is a great achievement to stall Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018 , basically it was a document to murder State DISCOMS at the cost of stressed IPP's. Under the given circumstances it is a big victory of unity and integrity of Power Engineers & Employees over commercialization of power sector. It is a victory over malicious and nefarious design of mighty Govt & Corporates.
It is a victory of courage and conviction.
AIPEF congratulates and salutes all power engineers & employees across the country whose united stand made 08 & 09 January 2019 Work Boycott a grand historical success and finally we succeeded in preventing Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2018. Besides this during last five years we have been successful in preventing the Central and State Govt's to further privatise DISCOMS as was done in Odisha & Delhi. Not only this we have succeeded in getting all three Reliance owned DISCOM's licenses cancelled in ODISHA. Our State Units fought and ensured cancellation of Urban Distribution Franchisee agreements of Kanpur,Aurangabad, Jalgaon,Gaya, Bhagalpur, Samastipur, Ujjain, Sagar, Gwalior, Ranchi, Jamshedpur . January 2019 Strike is instrumental in withholding handover of Malegaon and Mumbra UDF to private houses in Maharashtra.In UP privatisation tenders of Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad and six other districts were cancelled under power engineers & employees pressure and Govt had to give in writing that no privatisation in State will be done without taking engineers and employees in confidence. All this we have achieved during last five years when mighty Central Govt was moving ahead very fast with it's agenda to privatise power sector.
Other main demands of Power Engineers & Employees are as following -
- Stop Privatisation/Franchise & Integrate all unbundled power utilities in form of SEB Ltd like KSEB Ltd & HPSEB Ltd.
-Implement Pension Scheme for all Power Engineers &Employees recruited after unbundling of SEB's.
-Regularise all contractual employees working in Power Sector.
We have to continue our mass mobilisation campaign till formation of new Govt so that we are able to meet out any challenge in future.
We have to maintain our unity and keep it up to thwart any such anti people legislation in coming days after parliamentary elections. Survival of public owned power sector is the real battle which we have to continue and we will continue.
Getting success in stalling any Bill in parliament for full five years ie full term of parliament is really remarkable and historical for which once again congratulations and salute to all power engineers and power employees.
Rightly said - ' There is light at the end of tunnel but there are many hurdles on the way. We know our strength, we know our weakness also.We will strengthen our State Units which are not strong or mobilised enough to meet the challenges. We have to walk miles more to achieve the goal."
With words of Swami Vivekanand - " Wining over goal is not the toughest one, winning over the patience in process of achieving the goal is really tough." With these words friends - we will have patience & we will win.
YES WE CAN DO.
Keep it up. Congratulations.
SHAILENDRA DUBEY P RATHNAKAR RAO
CHAIRMAN SECRETARY GENERAL