Power employees sport black bands to oppose privatisation
UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti announces that the campaign to wear black bands would continue till January 18, with a major strategy announcement scheduled for the same day to intensify the movement
LUCKNOW Wearing black bands to signify their dissent, employees, contractual workers, and engineers across UP organised protest meetings at district and project headquarters on Wednesday to oppose the proposed privatisation of Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal electricity distribution companies (discoms).

The UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti announced that the campaign to wear black bands would continue till January 18, with a major strategy announcement scheduled for the same day to intensify the movement.
“Large protest gatherings were held in Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Agra, Meerut, Kanpur, Noida, and Jhansi, among other cities. In Lucknow, demonstrations took place at Residency, Talkatora, Madhyanchal headquarters, transmission building, SLDC, and Shakti Bhawan,” claimed Sangharsh Samiti convenor Shailendra Dubey.
Sangharsh Samiti leaders alleged that the privatisation process, initiated through the issuance of tender notices, is designed to work against the interests of employees. They said the RFP (request for proposal) document contains clauses that force employees to either accept private companies’ terms, take early VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme), or risk unemployment.
“Privatisation will result in the loss of jobs for 50,000 contractual employees and retrenchment of 26,000 regular employees,” said Dubey. He added that the RFP includes provisions for early VRS, hinting that private companies have no intention of retaining government employees.
Leaders also accused the power corporation management of using intimidation tactics to suppress dissent, such as suspending regular employees and terminating contractual workers.
The committee emphasised that employees will not back down. “The management is mistaken if it thinks privatisation can be imposed by fear. We will continue our fight until privatisation is revoked,” the leaders said.
