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Chandigarh: Power employees on warpath as admn set to transfer assets to private firm by Dec 31
The UT administration had invited bids for the privatisation process in November 2020 and declared the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group the highest bidder among the seven companies in the race in May 2021. The group’s subsidiary, Eminent Electricity Distribution, had quoted a bid of around ₹871 crore against the reserve price of ₹175 crore.
With the UT electricity department all set to transfer its power assets to a Kolkata-based private company by December 31, employees of the department are on a warpath, demanding that they remain under the government’s ambit and enjoy the same conditions as government employees.
There are around 600 regular employees and about 500 outsourced employees in the department.
The employees have already announced an indefinite strike starting December 6.
The UT administration had invited bids for the privatisation process in November 2020 and declared the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group the highest bidder among the seven companies in the race in May 2021. The group’s subsidiary, Eminent Electricity Distribution, had quoted a bid of around ₹871 crore against the reserve price of ₹175 crore.
A senior official of the electricity department said, “We are in the process of transferring the assets by December 31. The assets include 16 sub-division offices, four division offices, one circle office, and a control room.”
Earlier on December 2, the Supreme Court had dismissed the powermen union’s petition against an earlier Punjab and Haryana high court order. The association had filed a special leave petition (SLP), but the top court upheld the high court order. On November 7, the high court had dismissed a petition by employees of the UT electricity department, thus paving the way for the privatisation of power in the city.
The union had argued that the administration was selling 100% stakes without a provision under the Electricity Act, 2003, even though the department was running into profits, with surplus revenue for the past three years.
Union general secretary Gopal Dutt Joshi alleged that officers showed haste while processing the tender and did not publish the transfer policy for employees, which should have been done first and notified after taking objections from the main stakeholders, employees, and officers.
Joshi said, “If the department is handed over to a private company without protecting the service conditions of the employees, then an indefinite work boycott will be announced during the December 6 protest.”
The UT administration had announced that the privatisation process would be completed by the end of 2020. However, the UT powermen union challenged the move in court on December 1, 2020, stalling the process.
