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The NTPC Executive Federation of India (NEFI) is worried about Modi Government’s proposed plans to dilute the equity in NTPC Ltd below 51 per cent. In a protest against this, 13,000 executives of NEFI could go on a strike after October 7, said NEFI Chairman V K Sharma.
In a telephonic interaction with BusinessLine , Sharma said the strike will affect all the standalone power and joint venture power plants of the company. A call for the strike would be taken by the national council body of NEFI after Navratri celebration, he said.
Sharma also pointed out that the NTPC top management is keeping a studied silence over the matter but NEFI has learnt that the Power Ministry is considering the equity dilution plan.
Navratri celebration ends on October 7 and Dussehra on October 8, power plant shut down would mar the Diwali celebration across the country as NTPC is the largest power in the country.
An NTPC officer told BusinessLine on condition of anonymity that the equity dilution will lead to easy hire and fire policy, it will put a cap on the medical benefits and will negatively affect the company.
NTPC has an installed capacity of 55,786 MW (including 7,801 MW through JVs/Subsidiaries) comprising of 53 NTPC power plants. The company has 22 coal-based plants, seven combined cycle gas and liquid fuel based stations, two Hydro based and one wind-based power plant. It has ten JV stations and 11 other renewable energy projects.
Letter to PM
Sharma in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Modi said that “Considering above, NTPC executives are seriously worried about the future of the company in the present context of proposed privatisation/disinvestment/stake sell, which they have built over 44 years with their untiring efforts.”
“Being chief of the nation, it is our earnest submission to your good self to kindly look into the matter and while taking into consideration the strategic importance of core sector CPSEs like NTPC Ltd, we would humbly request your good self to kindly review and shelve Government's plan regarding further disinvestment of government's stake in NTPC Ltd in the larger interest of the country…,” Sharma said.
In an earlier email (August 23) with BusinessLine , the NTPC management had said that the CMD, Gurdeep Singh had met some executives at the Darlipalli power project in Orissa, after media reports had mentioned about the dilution.
It was clarified to them that at present NTPC has no official communication on this issue from the government and employees should not be apprehensive on some unverified media reports.
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