Protest staged against plan to trifurcate Tangedco

Protest in Madurai against trifurcation of Tangedco, potential privatization, and increased workload for electricity board employees.

Members of Tamil Nadu Retired Electricity Board Employees Association and Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) staged a protest in front of the TNEB office at K. Pudur here on Monday demanding to drop plans to trifurcate Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco). 

The protesters said that in August 2023, a private consultant had recommended trifurcation of Tangedco. The recommendation was approved by Tangedco and forwarded to the State government for its approval.  

“The trifurcation of the corporation will lead to privatisation of the corporations which subsequently will cause workers losing their rights,” said R. Marichamy, district president.  

They raised slogans against the new instruction for the staff to use mobile phones for recording reading from electricity services. They said that a staff in a day must record EB readings of about 200 services and if the mobile phone app is used, it would take at least a minimum of five to 10 minutes to finish one service. 

The officials claim that since the readings were not accurate, they have changed to a mobile phone application, Kulanthaivel of COTEE said. The officials claim that inaccuracy as the reason was false, as the reading for many decades were taken only manually and if mobile application were to be used, it would be a trouble to both the staff and the consumers.  

Further, through a Government Order (G.O), the government plans to abolish many posts such as Assistant Engineer (AE), Executive Engineer (EE).  “It is now said that only Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE) will be stationed in sub-stations for 24 hours. This will increase the workload for AEEs,” they added.  

Such orders before deciding could be discussed with associations to understand the workers’ grievances.