Employees of the Puducherry Electricity Department (PED) which distributes and transmits power in the Union territory will go on an indefinite strike from February 1 in protest against the move by the government to privatise power distribution and transmission.

The electricity engineers and employees privatisation protest committee in a statement said that this decision was taken after talks with government representatives failed on Thursday. In the meeting, the three-member team of Superintending Engineer I T Shanmugham heading the electricity department and Under Secretary (Power) Murugesan and Officer on Special Duty (Power) A Radjesvary representing the government interacted with representatives of the privatisation protest committee, but the latter did not agree to the privatisation move and walked out of the meeting with black flags. 

The government said the draft transfer scheme for employees, specifying the service condition after the department was transferred to the private sector, was already provided to them and anything further they wanted could be discussed and incorporated in the scheme, but the employees did not accept it.

The employees are upset as they would lose their status as government employees. “We have joined as government employees and we want to retire as government employees and this has been conveyed to the government representatives. Hence we have decided to go on indefinite strike from February 1 to oppose privatisation,” said C Arulmozhi, President, and P Velmurugan.

Salaries, terminal benefits and pensions for the existing staff will remain the same after the takeover by the private company, maintained Shanmugham, adding that they wanted to emphasise this aspect during the meeting with the employees but they did not pay any heed. As per Section 133 of the Electricity Act of 2003, the service benefits could not be lower than the existing salary, benefits, pension and terminal benefits. This has been incorporated in the draft transfer scheme, he said. In the private sector, they could get even better salary for better performance, he said.

Opposition parties, several political leaders and civil society organisations have questioned the rationale for privatising a profit making and robust enterprise of the public sector and sacrificing social interest.