PSEB Junior Engineers strike work against proposed Electricity Amendment Bill-2025
Residents face inconvenience as routine maintenance and complaints were left pending in many parts of Punjab
Lakhs of power employees and engineers from across the country — including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana — boycotted work and took out protest rallies today.
They demanded the rollback of privatisation of the power sector (distribution, transmission and generation), withdrawal of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, withdrawal of the proposed National Electricity Policy, 2026, and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme.
Shailendra Dubey, chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), said that for the first time, farmers’ organisations and central trade unions had also extended support to their cause.
“With the participation of power sector employees, engineers, workers and farmers today it has become one of the largest industrial actions in independent India,” Dubey said.
The AIPEF has also raised concerns that privatisation of the power sector, including distribution, generation and transmission, would be detrimental to poor consumers, small and medium industries, and general public.
Meanwhile, residents faced inconvenience as routine maintenance and complaints remained pending in many parts of Punjab following strike by power unions.
Amandeep Jehlavi, state general secretary of JEs Council, said, “On the call given by the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE), Council of Junior Engineer (PSEB), a representative body of Power Junior Engineers, and promoted officers working in PSPCL and PSTCL, observed one-day strike against proposed draft Electricity Amendment Bill 2025 and Union Government’s push for anti-public sector policies.”
Jehlavi, JE Council’s life patron Davinder Singh, and state president Paramjit Singh Khattra, in a joint statement, said that employees, engineers and pensioners — under the banner of Power Sector Joint Action Committee — held various protest rallies in front of PSPCL Zonal Offices at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Bathinda, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ropar thermal power station in January against the Punjab Government’s move to sell Powercom’s assets, delay in setting up of 2 800MW super critical thermal power plants at Ropar and against the proposed draft Electricity Amendment Bill, 2025. On February 4, a massive rally was held in front of PSPCL office in Patiala in which thousands of engineers, employees and pensioners participated and expressed their anguish against policies of the state and central governments.
Discoms collectively recorded a Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs 2,701 crore in FY25 after reporting losses for the past several years since the unbundling and corporatisation of State Electricity Boards. This is compared with a loss of Rs 25,553 crore in FY24 and a loss of Rs 67,962 crore in 2013-14. The Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses have reduced over the years, signaling transformation. The AT&C losses reduced from 22.62 per cent in FY14 to 15.04 per cent in FY25. Further, signalling much improved cost recovery, the Average Cost of Supply–Average Revenue Realized (ACS-ARR) gap has narrowed from Rs 0.78/kWh in FY14 to Rs 0.06/kWh.
“In spite of the above trend, proposed Electricity Amendment Bill, 2025, is being pushed in the name of reforms, which violates federal principles and it would lead to massive privatisation and centralisation of the Indian power system. This is a move to dismantle public control over power sector, which will expose the country to unreliable supply. Cross-subsidies will burden the common consumers and farmers with un-affordable tariffs. Gates of multi-licensing in the distribution sector will open and private entities will cherry-pick profitable consumers while burdening public utilities with losses,” said a leader.
