The Haryana state secretariat of CPI(M) has said that the strike of power employees on 29-30 June against privatization is totally justified and is in public interest. The party has demanded that all repressive measures should immediately be stopped and ESMA withdrawn
Power experts have revealed that the top management of power sector with the motive of providing benefit to the private companies has put extra burden of thousands of crores of rupees on the public. The cost of production per unit from the state govt’s. generation plants ranges from Rs. 4.26 to Rs. 4.48. But the Management has purchased power at a rate of Rs. 11.54 per unit from the private companies and that too by keeping our own plants under utilized. Not only this the requirement of power was inflated to benefit the private companies. This is a huge scam which needs a high level inquiry. This corrupt nexus of top management and private companies is promoting privatization of power sector and thus 23 sub divisions have been handed over to contracters. There have been accusations of vested interests of some Cabinet Ministers of the present BJP state govt. in this process of privatization.
The CPI(M) in this background has demanded immediate suspension of privatization process, withdrawal of all repressive measures including ESMA against the employees, reinstatement of hundreds of terminated employees and a high level fair inquiry of power purchase and severe punishment for the responsible officers. The party has also demanded that in addition to fully utilizing the production capacity of existing power generation plants new generation plants be installed so that the public gets cheap electricity and the unemployed youth can get job opportunities.