A three-day strike which started on January 4 by employees of three power companies in Maharashtra has been called off on Wednesday after Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the energy department, assured that there will be no privatisation of MahaGenco, MahaVitaran and MahaTransco.
Instead, Fadnavis during his meeting with the representatives of 32 organisations representing engineers, technicians, and employees said that the government in the next three years would make an investment of Rs 50,000 crore for further strengthening the power sector in the state. The strike was called to protest against the privatisation and the parallel license sought by Adani Electricity in MahaVitaran’s Bhandup electricity distribution region.
‘’The state government does not want any privatization of power companies. The government will invest Rs 50,000 crore in the next three years. Privatisation has been done in Odisha, and Delhi, but there is no plan to do it in Maharashtra. As far as parallel licences, the state government will put its argument in the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission in this regard,’’ said Fadnavis.
‘’The employee's unions put forward their argument that the state government should make its submission on the parallel license sought by Adani Electricity in MahaVitaran’s Bhandup distribution region. The state government will submit its say in the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission in their interest,’’ said Fadnavis.
Fadnavis said that the state government is positive about the demands of contract workers adding that the stand taken by the unions is the government’s stand in this regard.
However, power supply was disrupted at a few locations in Maharashtra following the strike as nearly 85% of employees from three companies had joined the strike to protest against the license sought by Adani Electricity for electricity distribution in NAVI Mumbai and other areas which come under MahaVitaran’s high revenue generating areas. The MahaGenco’s Five generation plants with a total generation capacity of 1,380 mw were shut down due to a strike. However, the power supply by and large did not interrupt due to low power demand and also because MahaVitaran had tied up the power supply from power exchanges.
The MahaVitaran had put in place a mechanism for an uninterrupted power supply. The state governments had also evoked the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act provisions barring three companies' employees from going on strike.
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