Scores of employees including senior engineers from PDD held a day-long protest in Srinagar to demand revocation of Electricity Amendment Act.
The employees assembled at JKEEGA complex at Bemina and staged protest under the banner of the J&K Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA). The protest was held on the protest call given by the National Coordination Committee of Engineers and Employees (NCCOEE).
General Secretary JKEEGA, Er Peerzada Hidayatullah said that the bill will change the whole working of PDD. “It will have implications for everyone and that is why they are asking the government to take all stakeholders on board,” he said.
“We have assembled here to against introduction of Electricity Amendment Act 2022 in Parliament without referring the bill to parliament standing committee and consulting stakeholders who are power engineers and employees of the country. We have been time again maintained that all the stakeholders will be consulted, but unfortunately nothing like that happened. There are many other reservations. The bill will give a license to distribute and transmit power to private players who will cherry-pick areas of service as per their liking. The move will intrude the functioning of various power corporations of PDD who will remain mere supervisors,” Hidayatullah said.
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The employees said that the scores of their colleagues are yet to be regularised.
“If the distribution will be handed over to private players, our future will be put in a lurch. We also fear for our livelihood. The interference of private players will also overburden the consumers as they will not get any subsidies,” said another employee.
The protesting employees appealed to the Government of India to send the Electricity Amendment bill 2022 to the standing committee of Parliament for discussion with all stakeholders. They said the stakeholders should include the Power Sector Engineers and Employees as the bill has sweeping changes in the electricity sector of J&K and will affect them as well.
The employees said that future protest programme against the amendment of the electricity bill as issued by NCCOEE will be followed in letter and spirit till their demands are fulfilled.
