Electricity Bill in Parliament: Power men threaten nationwide stir if Bill is passed

The sticking point is that the Central government had not held any talks till date, neither with the consumer organisations nor with power employees’ unions

Power engineers have strongly objected to the Union power minister’s statement that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 will be tabled and passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.

For representation only (HT File Photo)

They have also warned that any such action would trigger a nationwide strike by power engineers and employees.

“Any unilateral action to get the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021 passed in Parliament without taking the electricity employees and engineers across the country into confidence will be strongly opposed and all 27 lakh electricity employees and engineers of the country will be forced to resort to a nationwide strike,” Shailendra Dubey, All-India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF), chairman, said here on Friday.

He said that the Central government had not held any talks till date, neither with the consumer organisations nor with power employees’ unions on the proposed amendments through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2021.

“Through this amendment, the Central government is going to abolish the licence of electricity distribution and give the facility to private entities to supply electricity through the existing network of government discoms,” he alleged.