With the March 25 deadline approaching, the UT administration is accelerating the entire electricity privatisation process.
To settle the key and contentious issue of employee management after the electricity department’s transfer to a private firm, the administration has decided to appoint a consultant and assess the unfunded terminal liabilities concerning the employees.
The consultant (actuarial valuer) will undertake valuation assessment of pension, gratuity, provident fund, leave encashment, leave travel allowance, fixed post-retirement medical allowance and any other terminal liabilities applicable to the employees.
“For the settlement of employee dues, before the ownership of the department is transferred to the private firm, a trust will be set up from which dues will be transferred,” said a senior UT official.
Powermen to strike from Feb 22 to 24
The decision to appoint a valuer comes at a time when the department employees are planning to organise a three-day strike from February 22 to 24.
The employees are against the privatisation move and have already held a number of strikes for their demands earlier, which majorly affected the power supply in the city, but ended up not eliciting any response from the administration.
Political parties against the BJP-led central government’s decision to privatise the city’s power utility have also threatened to start a protest.
{{/usCountry}}Political parties against the BJP-led central government’s decision to privatise the city’s power utility have also threatened to start a protest.
{{/usCountry}}Highest bid got Centre’s nod in August last year
Notably, the Union cabinet on January 7 had given its nod to the ₹871-crore bid made by a private company in August last year, paving way for the transfer of the UT power department.
The department will be bundled into a company and its shares transferred to the private company.
Kolkata-based industrial and services conglomerate RP-Sanjiv Goenka (RPSG) Group had quoted the highest bid for the department.
The group’s flagship Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC)’s wholly-owned subsidiary Eminent Electricity Distribution (EED) quoted a bid of around ₹871 crore against the reserve price of ₹175 crore. The next highest bid of ₹606 crore was made by Torrent Power.
Others among the seven companies in the race were Sterlite Power, ReNew Wing Energy, NTPC Electric Supply Company Limited, Adani Transmission Limited and Tata Power.
Originally, 21 companies had bought the request for proposal, but only these seven entered the bidding stage.
The decision to privatise the UT electricity department was taken on May 12, 2020, after directions from the Centre.
The UT had committed to finish the process by year-end, but it got entangled in legal battles after the UT Powermen Union approached the Punjab and Haryana high court against privatisation.
The move also elicited criticism from resident welfare associations and opposition parties.
The process was stayed by the high court twice. On May 28, 2021, HC had applied brakes on privatisation and even pulled up the administration for its “undue hurry” during a raging pandemic.
On both occasions, the administration had approached the Supreme Court, which allowed the process to continue. HC will be taking up the case again on February 17.