The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) employees and engineers will observe a one-day strike on October 8 against the scheduled transfer of power distribution system in Agra and Kanpur to Torrent Power.
While, power distribution in Agra could soon be transferred to Torrent, Kanpur could come under the company’s network by December.
As a prelude to the October 8 strike, the powermen would proceed on 48-hour work boycott on October 6. They have warned of launching stir immediately, if the power distribution was transferred prior to the planned agitation.
UPPCL staff under the banner of Power Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) alleged UPPCL was proceeding with the franchisee-based power distribution although there had been significant cut in line losses of late.
JAC spokesperson Shailendra Dubey said revenue generation in Kanpur during 2008-09 improved to Rs 2.39 per unit vis-à-vis Rs 1.96 in 2007-08, while the corresponding figures for Agra were Rs 1.89 and Rs 1.65.
“When we have already brought about 43 paise and 24 paise improvement in revenue per unit respectively in Kanpur and Agra and are close to matching the rates quoted by Torrent, the company should not be handed over the power distribution,” he demanded.
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Meanwhile, sources said UPPCL engineers in a meeting pointed to the Torrent officials that the average tariff of Rs 2.87 quoted by them for Agra would actually come to Rs 4 per unit for consumers.
In this regard, two senior engineers, including S M Agarwal, advisor to UPPCL chairman and managing director Navneet Sehgal, had been sent to Agra to verify the data.
Torrent was selected through competitive bidding in February 2009 and a formal agreement signed on May 18. Torrent had committed investment of over Rs 200 crore Rs 500 crore in Agra and Kanpur.
Torrent had promised perquisites over salary to powermen, JAC remains adamant on its demand of rollback of the franchisee power distribution model.
Seven other cities are also in pipeline namely Bareilly, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Aligarh and Meerut.