The power department employees under the banner of UT Powermen Union will observe a 72-hour strike from February 22 to oppose the privatisation of the profit-making electricity department of Chandigarh, threatening to make it an indefinite strike if the UT administration and the Centre did not change its attitude.
Meanwhile, the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) said it opposed selective privatisation with commercially lucrative revenue potential area of distribution utilities and support the strike of power employees. V K Gupta, spokesperson, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), said the privatisation of union territories’ departments is just a prelude to government policy to privatise the state electricity boards.
The Union Cabinet has approved the highest bidder on January 6 and Chandigarh administration has planned to hand over the power department to the private company on March 24. Kolkata-based Eminent Electricity Distribution was the highest bidder with Rs 817 crore against a reserve price of Rs 174 crore, defeating giants like Tata and the Adani group. The company is a subsidiary of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Ltd, a flagship of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. tnn