Haryana: withdraw Agri DISCOM, parallel licence and smart-meter privatisation

The Electricity Employees Federation of India has written to the Chief Minister of Haryana asking the government to intervene at once, open talks with employees and engineers, and withdraw the measures that fragment the public distribution system and open the door to private capital.

The letter stands with the Haryana Bijli Karmachari Evam Engineer Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha, which has served notice of a three-day statewide strike on 11, 12 and 13 August 2026.

Three decisions sit at the centre of the unrest: a separate Haryana Agri DISCOM; a parallel private distribution licence in Gurugram and Nuh; and smart metering under the present private-vendor policy. They are not separate administrative steps. They carry into the state, by notification, the same multiple-licensee agenda that the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025 could not take through Parliament.

A separate Agri DISCOM would lift lakhs of subsidised agricultural consumers, thousands of feeders and transformers, large liabilities and a large part of the workforce out of the existing public companies. The rural load would sit on subsidy alone, without cross-subsidy. The commercially paying urban load would be left ready for private picking. Posts in the present utilities would be abolished as workers are shifted — service, promotion, pension and security thrown into doubt.

A parallel private licensee in selected urban and industrial circles takes the high-revenue consumer and leaves the farmer and the weaker household with the public company. Smart metering, unless it strengthens the public utility, becomes another door for outsourcing and arbitrary billing.

The letter also places the long-pending service questions — recruitment, vacancies, regularisation of contract labour, pension, promotion, safety and working conditions — as part of the same defence of a public electricity system.

EEFI asks the Government of Haryana to withdraw the Agri DISCOM notification, drop the parallel-licence proposal, halt the privatisation measures, and negotiate with the Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha before the strike dates.