Gurugram: About 40,000 electricity employees in Haryana began a three-day strike at 10 pm on Wednesday against a licence granted to a private power distributor, disrupting supply in Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Rewari, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Karnal and Ambala.
The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) has granted Eleven Power a 25-year parallel distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh. Employee unions have called the decision backdoor privatisation.
Within 12 hours of the strike, the power department received more than 3,000 complaints. Several sectors and colonies in Gurugram went without power for long stretches. As inverter backups ran out, residents fell back on generators, and water supply was hit in several areas.
In Rewari, residents of Palhawas and nearby villages blocked National Highway 352 in protest. In Faridabad's New Industrial Township-2, residents staged a demonstration demanding the restoration of supply.
Energy Minister Anil Vij said the government would appeal against the HERC order before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) and seek a stay. He called the strike unnecessary and urged employees to return to work.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has also appealed to the staff to call off the strike. The agitation is scheduled to run until October 24.
The strike also hit industrial output in Gurugram, with units in Daulatabad, Kadipur, Basai and Sector 37 facing disruption. Deepak Maini, chairman of the Progressive Federation of Trade and Industry, said Sector 37 had had no supply since 10 pm on Wednesday, and warned that a prolonged outage could hurt production, business operations and delivery schedules.