Gurugram: Large parts of Gurugram, Faridabad and Nuh spent Thursday without reliable power as Haryana electricity department employees pressed on with their strike against the grant of a parallel private distribution licence, with more than 3,000 electricity-related complaints received in Gurugram on the first day of the strike, news agency PTI reported.
Source: Livemint (PTI)
The strike by Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) workers has affected electricity supply in the three districts since about 10 p.m. on Wednesday. In Faridabad's New Industrial Township-2 area, residents came out on the streets demanding restoration of supply, saying the power cuts had also cut off their water, PTI reported.
Local reports from Gurugram's Ashok Vihar in Sector 5 described a similar protest on Thursday: residents said their homes had been without electricity since around 10 p.m. on October 21, and after the water in their houses ran out, people — including women and elderly residents — gathered on the road to demand answers from the department.
Source: TezzBuzz
Industry took a hit as well. Industrial establishments in Gurugram's Daulatabad, Kadipur and Sector 37 areas were affected, and units in Kadipur and Basai also reported outages. An entrepreneur identified as Maini told PTI that power cuts had brought machinery and production to a halt at hundreds of units, raising the risk of losses.
The protest is against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission's (HERC) decision to grant private company Eleven Power a parallel licence to distribute electricity in Gurugram and Nuh for 25 years. Employee unions allege the licence amounts to indirect privatisation of the state power sector — an allegation the regulator and the company have not accepted; the employees had announced a three-day strike from October 22 to 24.
Source: Mirror Now
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has said the state government will challenge the HERC order before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) and offered to engage lawyers trusted by the workers' unions. Energy Minister Anil Vij said on Thursday that although 45 days are available to appeal, the government is working to file the appeal within five to six days and seek a stay, and that the government had opposed the licence before the regulator. He appealed to employees to abandon the strike, saying all arrangements had been made.
Vij's statement, issued through the state information department on October 22, said he himself is against privatisation because large public money and infrastructure are invested in the sector and employees' jobs are at stake, but the commission is an autonomous body and its decision went against the government's stand.
Source: India News Calling (state statement)
For residents, the immediate question is narrower than the licence dispute: how quickly faults are repaired and supply restored while the strike runs. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as official restoration figures or a strike decision are announced.