PUDUCHERRY: The employees of the Puducherry Electricity department (PED) from Friday stopped taking meter readings for, and issuing bills to all categories of consumers. This is part of their agitation against the move of the Union and State governments to privatise power distribution in the UT.
Puducherry has around 4.77 lakh consumers under various categories. While 4.76 lakh consumers are LT (low tension) consumers, including 3.55 lakh in the domestic category, around 549 consumers are HT (high tension).
Though Power Secretary T Arun and PED officials held a meeting with the Electricity Engineers, and Employees Privatisation Protest Committee representatives on June 29, the meeting yielded no solutions. The protest committee is going ahead with its agitation programmes planned earlier.
The privatisation committee, in the meeting, wanted an assurance that the engineers and employees will continue as government servants even in the event of privatisation. All staff want to continue as government employees till their retirement and without their opinion, they cannot be transferred to a private entity as per Rule 37 of CCS (Pension) Rules, said P Velmurugan, general secretary of the committee at the meeting. Further, the privatisation proposal citing clause 131 of Electricity Act is against the law as the subject clause is applicable only for reorganisation of electricity boards and not the department, the committee told the government.
Further, the committee added, the privatisation was not necessary as the department was functioning efficiently, as the average cost of supply was much lesser than the privatised DISCOMS. In respect of AT&C losses, the same is less than the national average and the department is constantly improving. Further if the government supports reading of agricultural consumers, it would be at par with privatised DISCOMS, the committee had explained.
Besides, only the draft Standard Bid Document (SBD) on privatisation of utilities by the Ministry of Power was circulated to employees on September 20, 2020. The final SBD is yet to be issued. Following the release of the SBD, the privatisation proposal, if taken forward, may affect the service conditions of employees adversely, the members pointed out.
The Secretary (Power) said, the employees' demand will be taken up with the transition adviser, and then it will be put up to the JERC (Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission), MHA and State cabinet, for approval, added Velmurugan. Arun also said that the Transfer Scheme is still under the approval stage and any modification suggested by the Associations -- if found to be applicable -- could be incorporated in the Transfer Scheme. He also appealed to the employees to withdraw the stir.