Maha govt planning to sell off Mahavitaran claims AAP

The Maharashtra government was accused of plotting to give the private conglomerate Adani group control of the state-run energy distribution utility Mahavitaran by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Mumbai unit president and AAP national executive member Preeti Sharma Menon stated that the Arvind Kejriwal-led organisation fully supports the proposed strike on January 4 called by a section of state electricity workers in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Raigad and other districts of the state against privatisation of government-run utilities.

An Adani group company applied for a licence to expand its electricity distribution operations into new districts of Mumbai in November of last year. Adani Electricity Navi Mumbai (AENM), along with its listed parent Adani Transmission, has stated that it had applied to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for a distribution licence in a few areas of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The state-owned energy distribution company Mahavitaran, which provides electricity to villages in Maharashtra, is also being given to the Adani group by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Menon said in the statement. These projects include airports, ports, BSES (a power company taken over by the group), and the Dharavi redevelopment project.

The AAP leader announced that on January 4, electricity employees from Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Raigad, and other districts in Maharashtra will strike and demonstrate outside the district collector's office in opposition to this "privatisation" scheme. The AAP fully supports power workers and opposes crony capitalism and the government's privatisation strategy, she stated.