Energy department unions in Haryana have withdrawn their three-day statewide strike after Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Energy Minister Anil Vij assured them that private companies would not be permitted in the state’s power sector and that no further parallel-distribution licences would be issued.
The decision followed a meeting lasting several hours in Panchkula on Thursday evening. The unions had launched the 72-hour protest at 10 pm on Wednesday against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (HERC) approval of a 25-year parallel-distribution licence for Eleven Power Private Limited in Gurugram and Nuh.
Ravinder Ghanghas, general secretary of the Haryana Power Engineers Association, said the state government had agreed to write to HERC seeking a review of the order on public-interest grounds. The commission had allowed Eleven Power to pursue electricity distribution alongside the existing state-run utilities.
The government has maintained that it was not involved in HERC’s decision and plans to challenge the order before the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity within a week. During a review meeting, Saini also said the government was prepared to engage lawyers trusted by the unions and would continue discussions with them.
Power supply disrupted across several areas
The strike affected electricity services in Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Panchkula and other parts of the state. Employees of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) reportedly shut feeders or declined to attend routine line faults, leading to prolonged outages.
In Sector 10’s Hari Nagar, residents went to the residence of Haryana minister Rao Narbir Singh at around 9.30 pm on Thursday after DHBVN officials stopped responding to calls. Although the minister was not present, the residents asked his aides to intervene and help restore the supply.
Electricity returned to the area within 30 minutes, according to Sumit Pradhan, president of the Hari Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association. The outage had also affected water supply, leaving residents to purchase packaged drinking water.
In Sector 3, 5 and 6, power was restored after midnight, around 26 hours after the outage began, said Dinesh Vashist, a former president of the local residents’ welfare associations. Officials attributed the disruption to a fault in a main high-tension feeder cable carrying electricity from a substation in Palam Vihar. The fault remained unrepaired until late Thursday evening.
In parts of old Gurugram, DHBVN employees resumed restoration work after police warned that legal action could follow if protests over the outages turned violent. Demonstrations had included road blockades at two locations.
Unions allege threat to public-sector jobs
Four major power unions, including the Haryana Power Engineers Association and the All Haryana Power Corporation Workers Union, opposed the parallel-distribution arrangement. They alleged that the licence could serve as an indirect route to privatisation and put public-sector employment at risk.
Eleven Power, chaired by Sunil Sachdeva, is the first private company to receive a parallel-distribution licence in Haryana. It plans to invest ₹4,716 crore over five years to establish a parallel network, potentially giving more than 8.3 lakh consumers in Gurugram and Nuh the choice between the private operator and state-run DHBVN.
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