Haryana's electricity crisis was resolved on Friday evening after striking power employees called off their strike, following assurances from the state government that the power sector would not be privatised and that a private company's distribution licence for Gurugram and Nuh would be cancelled.
The employees had been on strike since Wednesday night in protest against a decision by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission, the state's electricity regulator, to grant a parallel distribution licence to a private company, Eleven Power, for electricity distribution in the Gurugram-Nuh area.
The employees strongly opposed the move, calling it the beginning of privatisation in the power sector, and their strike plunged parts of Haryana, including Gurugram, into darkness, halted industrial production and disrupted water supply, prompting protests from residents demanding restoration.
The breakthrough came after a second round of talks in Panchkula on Friday evening between the employees' unions, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Power Minister Anil Vij. The meeting was held at the PWD Rest House in Panchkula and was attended by senior officials from the state government and the power department.
Discussions took place in two phases, and at the end of them the unions announced that the strike was over and that employees would immediately resume their duties.
Addressing a joint press conference with Vij and representatives of the employees' union, Chief Minister Saini emphasised that there would be no privatisation of any kind. He said the government stood fully with the electricity employees' union and reiterated that position in unambiguous terms.
He also pointed out that the regulatory commission is an independent body operating under its own Act, and that the state government is from time to time required to implement its orders and directives. Exercising its authority under Section 108 of the Electricity Act, 2003, the government has directed the regulator to review the matter and effectively cancel the private distribution provision.
Power Minister Anil Vij, who had earlier in the day predicted that the strike would end within a few hours, explained the government's position in detail. He said the state government had opposed the regulator's decision from the very first day and had never invited applications from any private company.
Under the Electricity Act, he noted, any entity can submit an application to the regulator proposing privatisation of specific areas, and it was such an application that led to the licence being granted. As soon as the decision was announced, power department employees protested strongly.
Vij said the union leaders had demanded that the government invoke Section 108 to dismiss the order, and the government had agreed to do so. He said he had spoken with the Chief Minister, had announced on social media that morning that the government would invoke Section 108, and that the union leaders had consented to a meeting in Panchkula at 3 pm on Friday. His confidence, expressed to reporters earlier in the day, proved well founded: by evening, the strike was called off.
The government's stated reasons for blocking the private licence go beyond the employees' demands. The state cited concerns about the financial and technical capacity of private entities to manage distribution, warning that such arrangements could threaten cross-subsidy models — under which profitable consumers effectively subsidise cheaper power for others — and increase the financial burden on the state utility, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam.
The licence in question was a 25-year parallel distribution licence, a long-term arrangement that would have created a private competitor operating alongside the state utility in two of the state's most economically important districts.
The strike itself had been a significant disruption. It began on Wednesday night and was scheduled to continue for three days, with Thursday as its first full day. Vij had initially described the protest as unwarranted, even as the government challenged the regulatory order permitting private distribution.
Gurugram, one of India's largest corporate and industrial hubs, was among the worst affected, with power cuts and water supply shortages reported across residential and industrial areas. Residents protested, demanding restoration of supply, and industrial production in parts of the state ground to a halt.
The resolution also sets up a further round of engagement. The next round of talks between the employees' union and the state government will be held on November 3, when the longer-term questions — including the formal cancellation of the licence and the future framework for distribution in Gurugram and Nuh — are expected to be discussed. For now, however, the immediate crisis is over: electricity supply is being restored, and employees have returned to work.
The episode highlights a recurring tension in India's power sector. Electricity distribution is a state subject, but it operates within a regulatory framework designed to encourage competition and private participation, and state governments must balance the regulator's independence against political and workforce pressures.
Haryana's government, in this instance, chose to side decisively with its employees, using its statutory power to direct the regulator rather than allowing the licence to stand. Whether that approach survives legal scrutiny, and how the regulator responds to the Section 108 direction, will be watched closely by other states facing similar pressures.
It also underscores the political sensitivity of privatisation in essential services. Power employees, like workers in other public utilities, view private entry as a threat to jobs, service conditions and the public-service character of the sector. Governments, for their part, face pressure from consumers who want reliable supply and from reformers who argue that private capital and competition can improve efficiency.
In Haryana this week, the employees' argument won the day — and the lights, after two days of darkness in parts of the state, are back on.
The strike's end brings relief to households and businesses across Haryana, but it leaves open the larger question of how the state's power distribution will be modernised. Gurugram's rapid growth has strained its electricity infrastructure, and the demand for reliable, high-quality power in the region will only increase.
The November 3 talks will be the next test of whether the government and the employees can agree not just on blocking privatisation, but on a plan for the future of power supply in India's millennium city and beyond.
(Reporting based on Punjab Kesari, Mirror Now and The Daily Jagran.)