Gurugram power cuts hit homes, industry as workers strike

Power cuts disrupted several residential sectors and industrial areas in Gurugram on Thursday, October 22, as electricity employees struck work against private participation in Haryana’s power distribution. India Today reported that residents took to the streets amid the outages, while industrial units in Daulatabad, Kadipur and Sector 37 also faced supply disruptions.

The dispute centres on the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant Eleven Power a 25-year parallel licence to distribute electricity in Gurugram and Nuh. The report does not include a response from the state government, the regulator or the company.

Parallel licence at the centre of the dispute

Electricity employees’ unions oppose the licence, arguing that allowing a private operator into high-revenue areas could weaken the state-run Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, or DHBVN. They also allege that the arrangement could make publicly built electricity infrastructure available to a private company.

The decision is described as a parallel distribution licence, not a sale of DHBVN. The report does not set out the licence’s infrastructure-use conditions or tariff provisions, leaving the unions’ claims about its financial consequences unsubstantiated by those details.

Employment and consumer concerns

The unions warn that the change could raise electricity costs for consumers, farmers and small businesses, and put the future of around 40,000 regular, contractual and outsourced employees and engineers at risk. That figure represents their claim about potential exposure, not confirmed job losses.

They further argue that private distributors could concentrate on profitable urban customers while leaving state utilities with the financial burden of rural and agricultural supply. These are the unions’ projections; the report provides no tariff calculation or financial assessment establishing those outcomes.

There is also uncertainty over the strike’s duration. The report describes the stoppage as indefinite, but says the employees’ joint forum had announced a statewide strike from October 22 to 24. It does not clarify whether that announced action was subsequently extended.