Dinkar Kapoor, State General Secretary, All India People’s Front, Uttar Pradesh.
(Samajweekly) For the past one week, the power crisis in Uttar Pradesh has been the center of discussion. Energy Minister AK Sharma got very angry at the top management of the power department in a high level meeting. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has warned the employees blaming them for the power crisis. As a result, arbitrary repressive action is being taken against engineers and employees in the state. In fact, the state is going through an unprecedented power crisis. The government announced that 24-hour power will be provided at district headquarters, 21.30 hours at tehsil headquarters, 18 hours in rural areas and 10 hours for tubewells for irrigation. This has remained a daydream. Leave aside villages and small towns, even in the capital Lucknow, important areas around the Vidhan Sabha and Secretariat are facing power cuts for hours. In fact, before the privatization of Purvanchal and Dakshinchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam, such an environment is being created in Uttar Pradesh so that people themselves start saying that the private sector will be better than the government sector. The government and the people of BJP are consciously holding the officers, engineers and employees of the electricity department responsible for this power crisis and are fulfilling their duty. All-round efforts are being made to make the employees villains in the eyes of the public.
In fact, the main reason for the current power crisis in Uttar Pradesh is the policies of the Yogi government. Today, the state has a peak demand of about 29000 MW of electricity, which is more than double compared to the last 10 years. The government is not ready to fulfill the manpower required for the smooth operation of this demand. The number of junior engineers, field staff, contract employees that were needed were not recruited. According to a report of Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan, about 40000 posts are lying vacant in the electricity department in the state, a large number of which are of junior engineers and field staff. Posts are also not being created according to today’s need. On the contrary, the existing staff is being burdened with additional work. The officials of the Junior Engineers’ Association say that each junior engineer is looking after an area of 20-20 kilometers. Not only this, other responsibilities including the district nodal officer are also put on him. The situation is such that thousands of experienced contract workers from Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam to other Discoms have been removed from work citing the age of 55 years. Not only this, contract workers are also being transferred. The employee organizations clearly say that the electricity department is a highly efficient department. Here the transfer policy cannot be implemented like other departments. The engineer who works on a job is aware of all its weaknesses and it is not possible for the new person who comes after the transfer to run the machines smoothly. Despite this, this year electricity workers have been transferred arbitrarily. Workers involved in the anti-privatization movement have been transferred far away to harass them. This kind of action lowers the morale of the employees and affects the work culture.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is saying that we have given a lot of budget to the electricity department, so at any cost, mismanagement in the electricity department will not be accepted. Whereas the truth is the opposite. Every year, the month of February is for maintenance work in the state. Because the demand for electricity increases a lot in the months like April, May, June, July and August, so maintenance work etc. is completed before this. But for the last several years, the government and the power corporation management working under it do not provide even the minimum things like transformer dowel, oil, KV wire, fuse wire etc. to the power stations. There are also problems in getting transformers. The rule is that after any transformer burns three times, it will not be repaired and will be replaced. But the same transformer is repaired and used more than 10 times and as soon as the load increases, that transformer gets damaged. Electricity employees say that if the purchase of aerial bunch conductor and transformer is investigated, then a big scam will be revealed. This time these items of very poor quality have been purchased, due to which they are getting damaged every day.
The government did automate the distribution in the name of technical and effective operation, but the government system has not been upgraded till date. Therefore, this automation does not seem to be affected. Like corporate culture, video conferencing is done every day. But due to lack of necessary infrastructure, it is being spent only in scolding, reprimanding and taking action against the officers. Similarly, the Chief Minister also says that no consumer should have any problem in billing in the electricity department. His statement seems that the employees are doing corruption on a large scale in billing. Whereas the truth is that the entire work has been given to private outsourced agencies and they do the work from installing meters, its reading to billing. Generally, the role of officers and employees in this is negligible now.
On 27th July 2025, 545 million units were consumed in Uttar Pradesh in 24 hours. Out of which 112 million units are from Uttar Pradesh Generation Corporation, 219 million units are from central pool and the rest are from private power houses. About 8000 MW of electricity can be produced from government power houses in the state. But usually more than 4000 MW of electricity is not being produced in the government sector. People will be surprised to know that despite such a huge demand for electricity, thermal backing i.e. production has been reduced to zero in government production houses like Harduaganj, Jawaharpur and Panki nowadays. Actually, there is a big scam in power generation here as well. The government currently needs about 29000 MW of electricity for consumers, out of which we take about 15000 MW of electricity from the central pool. Apart from this, 13500 MW of electricity is available from our state sector generation system. Which includes Uttar Pradesh Generation Corporation and private sector power generation houses and hydroelectric power generation houses of the state. Apart from this, the state government has already made an agreement to get electricity from corporate houses. This electricity is purchased at the rate of Rs 7 to Rs 19 per unit. In fact, the government’s cheap electricity production through thermal backing system is stopped for the profit of these big corporate houses.
Anyway, the electricity crisis in Uttar Pradesh can be overcome. Provided that the government creates posts on a large scale according to today’s need in the power sector and recruits immediately on all the vacant posts. Budget should be allocated instead of empty rhetoric on maintenance and infrastructure. Arbitrary transfers and unbridled harassment of officers, engineers, employees should be stopped. The decision to privatize Purvanchal and Dakshinachal should be withdrawn at all costs. It is unfortunate that at such a time, instead of attracting the attention of the public on these important questions of today and strengthening and expanding the anti-privatization movement, the Vidyut Karamchari Samyukta Sangharsh Samiti has unnecessarily got caught in the contradiction between the government. In such a situation, the democratic organizations of the state should take the initiative of a comprehensive public dialogue against the privatization of electricity and power mismanagement in Uttar Pradesh.
