Power staff stage protest across UP to press for withdrawal of electricity bill
LUCKNOW: The state’s power staff on Wednesday held protest meetings in various cities, including the state capital, on the second and last day of the nationwide work boycott called by the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers (NCCOEEE) and supported by various trade unions to press for their demands.
NCCOEEE has warned of indefinite strike before the Lok Sabha elections in case their demands, which include withdrawal of Electricity (Amendment) bill, restoration of old age pension and regularisation of contract workers, were not addressed.
The protest rallies were held in Lucknow, Anpara, Obra, Parichha, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Basti, Ayodhya, Bareli, Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Banda, Moradabad, Aligarh, Jhansi, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Agra, Panki, Varanasi and Ghaziabad. The employees boycotted the work and held demonstrations.
In Lucknow, hundreds of engineers and employees held a meeting at the gate of Shakti Bhawan shouting slogans against the Central government.
EMPLOYEES’ LEADERS SAID THAT IF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE ELECTRICITY ACT WERE PASSED, THE POWER TARIFF WOULD GO UP BY ₹10 PER UNIT, WHICH THEY SAID, WOULD HIT FARMERS AND COMMON CONSUMERS THE MOST
Addressing the meeting, employees leaders, including Shailendra Dubey, Rajiv Singh, Grirish Pandey, Sadruddin Rana and others claimed that once the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act were passed, the power tariff would go up by as high as ₹10 per unit which they said would hit farmers and common consumers the most.
The leaders said that electricity is in the concurrent list (managed by both the centre and the state) but the central government is trying to control the complete power sector of the states. “This is against the provisions of the constitution,” they said.