Lakhs of power sector engineers and employees held peaceful protests across the country against privatization of DISCOMs and the Electricity Amendment Bill 2020, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said on Tuesday.

“Lakhs of power sector employees and engineers across the country held peaceful protest meetings seeking withdrawal of Electricity Bill 2020 and to oppose the privatization process of electricity distribution in Union Territories and other states.” V K Gupta, AIPEF spokesperson said in a statement.

The AIPEF had called for a protest on August 18. The protest meetings were held under the banner of the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) in all states and UTs, the statement said.

After a strong protest of 11 states and two Union Territories in power ministers’ conference on July 3, the Union Power Minister had committed to bring a modified draft of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020, Gupta asserted. Even after more than 45 days, however, the government has not placed any new draft in the public domain for comments and Union Territories have been asked to privatize DISCOMs without getting into the details of the ground realities.

The Uttar Pradesh government and the Odisha government has started the process of privatizing Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam and Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) respectively, it stated, with Odisha’s Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) having given to Tata Power and its employees already protesting.

“The provisions in the draft Amendment Bill to allow private franchisee or sub-licensee will only lead to cherry-picking of remunerative areas affecting the financial viability of DISCOMs”, AIPEF opined, specifically mentioning that the privatization and urban distribution franchisee model have failed miserably in all the places.

“Now imposing the same failed model on states in the name of financial help is nothing but blackmail which is not acceptable and has been vehemently opposed by power employees and engineers”, it said, lamenting, “It seems that the government is more concerned about the profitability of the private sector power companies.”

Gupta assured Tuesday’s demonstration being a peaceful symbolic protest, stating that the power sector employees would be forced to resort to democratic agitation if central and state governments do not stop the privatization process.