Nagpur: The employees of 3 state-run power companies have called off the strike after the Maharashtra Government assured them of no privatization of the firms, a Union leader said on Wednesday. Earlier, the Unions of three state-owned power companies in the state had warned of a 72-hour strike from Wednesday to protest against the proposed privatisation of the power companies.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government had no intention to privatize state-run power utilities. “If a meeting had taken place between the state government and trade union representatives earlier, the strike wouldn’t have happened,” he said, adding, “One private company (belonging to Adani group) has applied for ‘parallel distribution licence’. I want to make it clear that we are not supporting privatisation of these companies.”
Gold Rate
11 Oct 2025
The state-run power companies are Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd (Mahavitaran), Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co Ltd (Mahapareshan) and Maharashtra State Electricity Generation Co Ltd (Mahanirmiti).
The strike by the three state-power companies has been called by Maharashtra Rajya Karmachari, Adhikari and Abhiyanta Sangharsh Samiti, the action committees of the power company unions.
“More than 30 unions of drivers, wiremen, engineers and other employees have come together to thwart the attempt of privatisation in the state-owned power companies,” Krushan Bhoir, General Secretary of Maharashtra State Electricity Workers’ Federation, was quoted as saying by a news agency.
Krushan Bhoir said employees of these state-run power companies have been demonstrating for the past two to three weeks. On Monday, about 15,000 employees of these companies in Maharashtra staged a protest outside the Thane collector office.
He said, “Nearly 86,000 employees, officers and engineers of the three power companies, along with 42,000 contract employees and security guards will go on a 72-hour strike starting Wednesday to protest against privatisation.”
The strike was launched in opposition to a range of issues:
Restructuring: Concerns were raised about the restructuring of Mahanirmiti and Mahapareshan companies.
Privatisation: Employees opposed the privatization of hydropower projects under Mahanirmiti and tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) under Mahapareshan.
Substation privatization: Protests were held against the privatization of 329 MSEDCL substations.
Parallel licenses: The unions opposed the issuing of parallel electricity licenses.
Pension: A demand was made to implement the pension scheme introduced by the state government.
Recruitment: The employees called for the filling of vacant positions.
