Power staff’s body to suggest electricity reforms in five cities

LUCKNOW: The UP Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, a joint body of various power employees’ unions, will chalk out a roadmap for electricity reforms in five cities based on the feedback from employees and consumers during seminars that it will soon hold.

The UP cabinet had on March 16 cleared the proposal for introduction of power distribution franchisee system in five cities, raising power employees’ hackles.

“We will hold seminar in the five cities and submit an action plan to energy minister, detailing how reforms can be done in these cities within the existing framework without having to resort to privatization as agreed upon in an agreement on Wednesday,” sagharsh samiti leader Shailendra Dubey said.

The sanghasrh samiti will hold seminar in Gorakhpur on April 10, in Varanasi on April 11, in Moradabad on April 17 and Meerut on April 18. It has not

announced any date for Lucknow yet.

Dubey said the government had once proposed to hand over Kanpur too along with Agra to a private franchisee.

“But continuous improvement in revenue recovery, reduction in

line losses in Kanpur forced the government to revisit its decision,” he said.

Dubey claimed the experiment of handing over Agra to a private franchisee in 2010 had been a disastrous experiment for the UPPCL.