Maha: Employees of three state-owned power companies to go on 72-hour strike

Unions of three stateowned power companies in Maharashtra have warned of a 72hour strike from Wednesday to protest against privatisation of power companies an official said on TuesdayThe strike has been called by Maharashtra Rajya Karmachari Adhikari and Abhiyanta Sangharsh Samiti an action committee of power company unionsMore than 30 unions of drivers wiremen engineers and other employees have come together to thwart the attempt of privatisation in the stateowned power companies Krushan Bhoir general secretary of Maharashtra State Electricity Workers Federation told PTIThe Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd Mahavitaran Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co Ltd Mahapareshan and Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Co Ltd Mahanirmiti are the stateowned power companiesEmployees of these companies have been staging agitations since the last two to three weeks while on Monday 15000 employees had staged a demonstration outside the Thane collector office he saidAlso Read Maharashtra Man held on charge of raping teenage girl in PalgharNearly 86000 employees officers and engineers of the three power companies along with 42000 contract employees and security guards will go on a 72hour strike starting Wednesday to protest against privatisation Bhoir saidOne of the major demands of the protesting employees is that Adanai Groups power subsidiary should not be given a parallel distribution licence to make profit in Bhandup in eastern Mumbai Thane and Navi Mumbai he saidIn November last year an Adani group company had sought licence for expanding its power distribution business into more areas of Mumbai Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai Ltd a subsidiary of Adani Transmission had applied to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission MERC for a parallel licence for power distribution under the jurisdiction of Mahavitaran in Bhandup Mulund Thane Navi Mumbai Panvel Taloja and Uran areasThere are no financial demands in this agitation but we want these power companies owned by people of the state to survive These should not be sold to private capitalists who intend to only make profit Bhoir saidIn the strike notice given to the state government last month the action committee has also warned of an indefinite strike from January 18 if the demands are not met he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever