Power employees and engineers staged demonstrations at all state capitals, power utilities headquarters and projects to protest against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and privatisation policies of the Central  and state governments. 

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) chairman Shailendra Dubey said that massive demonstrations were held at Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patiala, Shimla, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Jammu, Srinagar, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Raipur, Pune, Mumbai, Vadodara, Rajkot, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Shillong, Ranchi, Patna and at many major thermal power stations.

He said that the demand of scrapping the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 had not been adhered to even after a written commitment by the government to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha.

“On the contrary, prepaid smart meters are unlawfully installed in the consumers’ premises for curbing the right of universal access to electricity. Tariff based competitive bidding has been prescribed for installation of transmission sub-stations as further steps towards privatisation of the power sector,” he said.

He said the Union Ministry of Power was continuing with its privatisation agenda of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 through the Electricity (Amendment) Rules.

He said the ministry was issuing notifications called the Electricity (Amendment) Rules for the last more than one year and this exercise was being done in the name of exercising powers conferred by Section 176 of the Electricity Act, 2003 .

He said it was a matter of grave concern that the Central government was going ahead to sell off national assets to private hands.