Employees of Maharashtra power companies end strike after govt assures no plan to privatise firms

There were power outages in various parts of Maharashtra on Wednesday after thousands of employees of the three state-owned electricity companies went on a 72-hour strike protesting against privatisation and entry of private players in electricity distribution.

The strike has now been called off after a meeting between the union leaders and the government. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the leaders that not only was there no plan to privatise the state-owned electricity companies, but the government planned to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the companies over the next three years.

Why did the employees strike?

Employees of the state-owned electricity firms (Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Co., Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co.) are against privatisation of these companies. They were also protesting the likely entry of private sector players, mainly the proposal of the Adani Group seeking license to distribute electricity in Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Adani Electricity already distributes power in parts of Mumbai city, having acquired Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Energy in 2017. In November 2022, Adani Group approached the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) seeking a license to distribute electricity in the neighbouring areas of Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Under the plan, the Adani Group aims to invest Rs 5,700 crore over five years to build the entire distribution network. This would be parallel to the existing distribution network of the state-owned MSEDCL.

The unions say entry of private companies will impact the profitability of state-owned companies.

"Adani Power company will snatch profitable industrial and commercial consumers from the government company. The result will be that the government company will become financially poor and it will neither have the money to buy electricity nor will it be able to provide electricity to common poor consumers," felt Shailendra Dubey, chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation.

According to Dubey, out of the 13,000 Mw power generation capacity in the state, around 8,000 Mw worth capacity had to be shutdown as workers went on a strike.

What is the government's response?

Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis and other government officials met the employee unions in the afternoon. Fadnavis assured the unions there was no plan to privatise the companies. Rather, the government has plans to invest more in them.

"The state government doesn't want to privatise these companies. On the other hand, over the next three years, the state government is going to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the three companies," Fadnavis told reporters after the talks.

On parallel license sought by Adani, he said the proposal was in the initial stage where just the company had notified its plans. Once the MERC responds to it, the state would contest and also present its stand including the impact the parallel licensing plan will have on the state-owned companies, Fadnavis added.

The government will use all the legal options it has to try and ensure the interest of the state-owned companies are protected.

Satisfied with the assurances, the strike has been called off by electricity employees of the state.