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U.P. power staff body cites Odisha failures, urges CM to halt privatisation
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the Uttar Pradesh Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti pointed out that even after Odisha handed over its four discoms to Tata Power in 2020, the state’s electricity regulator recently issued notices citing the company’s failure to deliver satisfactory consumer services.
The Uttar Pradesh Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti has urged chief minister Yogi Adityanath to halt the ongoing process of electricity privatisation in the state, citing the repeated failure of such experiments in Odisha.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the committee pointed out that even after Odisha handed over its four discoms to Tata Power in 2020, the state’s electricity regulator recently issued notices citing the company’s failure to deliver satisfactory consumer services.
“On July 15, all four Tata Power CEOs failed to provide convincing explanations to the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC), which has now ordered a public hearing within a month,” Samiti convenor Shailendra Dubey said.
He noted that Odisha was the first state to privatise power distribution in 1999. The model failed when U.S. firm AES exited within a year, and in 2015, OERC cancelled Reliance’s discom licences citing non-performance.
Dubey warned that eastern and southern U.P, which have far larger and more agriculture-dependent areas than Odisha, must not be subjected to a similar failed model.
Meanwhile, marking the 231st consecutive day of protests against privatisation, demonstrations were staged in over 30 locations, including Varanasi, Kanpur, Meerut, Gorakhpur and Agra.
The committee appealed to the CM to intervene and cancel the privatisation process, saying people should not be pushed back into the “lantern era” due to poor policy choices.
