All employees and engineers of all power corporations in Uttar Pradesh are wearing black bands on Tuesday to protest the privatisation of the sector, and call attention to the failed privatisation bid in Greater Noida and Agra.
In April 2010, the electricity supply system of Agra was handed over to Torrent Power under a privatisation agreement. As per the agreement, Power Corporation was to supply electricity to the company at the rate of Rs 4.36 per unit. This electricity had been purchased by the power corporation at the rate of Rs 5.55 per unit. In the 14 years since then, the power corporation has thus suffered a loss of Rs 2,434 crore, as per figures put out by the Vidyut Karamchari Samyukt Sangharsh Samiti – a body of agitating employees.
Shailendra Dubey, the coordinator of the committee said that Agra being the leather capital of the country and a major tourism centre would have given the Power Corporation a revenue of more than Rs 8 per unit.
The state government decided to privatise the distribution of power in two DISCOMs (distribution companies) in view of the mounting losses faced by these. The total loss of the five DISCOMs in the state stands at Rs 1.1 lakh crore – a figure that agitating employees say is manipulated by Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited.
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In the case of Greater Noida, the employees are protesting the inability of Noida Power Company Limited to set up its own power generation house to date. As per the protesters, the company is unable to supply free electricity to farmers and is also unable to cater to new consumers due to which users are facing difficulty.
While outright privatisation of the sector has been always opposed by employees who fear retrenchments, they are even opposed to 50-50 partnerships which the state government has proposed. In such partnerships, the government body is always at a loss as has happened to the Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (DVVNL) in the case of Agra.
