SKM calls the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, an assault on federalism and people’s right to affordable power, and announced plans to coordinate with electricity workers’ unions to resist what it termed as “corporate capture of the power sector.”
New Delhi | October 18, 2025
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has sharply condemned the Modi government’s decision to release the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025, calling it a “gross violation of democratic norms” and “an assault on the federal rights of states.” The joint platform of farmer unions warned that it would launch protest actions across the country until the Bill is repealed, and announced plans to coordinate with electricity workers’ unions to resist what it termed as “corporate capture of the power sector.”
The Union Ministry of Power released the draft on 9 October 2025, inviting public comments — a move SKM described as “one of the most regressive acts of this government,” accusing the Prime Minister of breaking the written assurances given to the SKM on 9 December 2021, during the withdrawal of the historic farmers’ movement at Delhi borders.
“Releasing this Bill without consultation with SKM or other stakeholders is a betrayal of the agreement reached after 736 farmers laid down their lives in the movement,” the SKM’s statement said. “Farmers will never tolerate such extreme despotism,” it warned.
According to SKM, the Draft Electricity Bill 2025 is designed to pave the way for large-scale privatisation, commercialisation, and centralisation of the country’s power sector. It warned that the Bill would dismantle India’s integrated and socially driven electricity framework, handing over the most profitable segments of power generation and distribution to private corporations while leaving the public sector to shoulder losses and social obligations.
SKM also expressed strong opposition to the removal of cross-subsidies, warning that it would result in higher electricity tariffs for poor and rural households, deepen inequality, and further push farmers into distress. “Electricity is a public right, not a market commodity,” the statement read, terming the draft legislation “anti-people, anti-farmer, and anti-worker.”
The farmer unions coalition called the Bill a “direct assault on the federal character” of the Indian Constitution. It augued that by concentrating policy and decision-making powers with the Union government, the new legislation would undermine state control over electricity governance. “Electricity policy will become a tool for centralised, corporate-driven imposition,” SKM warned, pointing out that opposition-ruled states are already suffering financial constraints due to the Union government’s biased approach in GST sharing and grant allocations. SKM urged all state governments, regardless of party affiliation, to demand an immediate repeal of the draft Bill.
SKM reiterated its ongoing nationwide campaign against prepaid smart meters, describing them as “technological implants to facilitate corporate takeover.” It called on farmers, workers and consumers to intensify local struggles and boycott prepaid smart meters across the country. “Prepaid smart metering is not a reform — it’s a mechanism to privatise power distribution and strip consumers of control over a basic right,” the SKM statement said.
The farmer unions platform also highlighted the potential impact of the Bill on electricity workers. Citing examples from Odisha and Delhi, SKM said privatisation has led to higher tariffs, job losses, unpaid dues, and neglect of rural areas. The new Bill, it warned, would replicate this crisis nationwide.
SKM called upon farmers, power sector employees, engineers, consumers, and democratic organisations to unite in resistance. The leadership announced plans to hold coordinated meetings with electricity workers’ unions to plan direct action until the Bill is withdrawn.
The SKM demanded that the Prime Minister:
- Withdraw the Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025 immediately.
- Guarantee affordable power for all citizens as a social right, not a commodity.
- Stop all forms of privatisation and franchising in generation and distribution.
- Protect state utilities and uphold federal powers.
- Retain cross-subsidies and universal service obligations.
“Electricity cannot be left to the market. It is the lifeline of the people and the backbone of the rural economy,” SKM said.
The statement, issued by the Media Cell of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, concluded with an appeal to “intensify democratic struggles” against the Modi government’s policies of corporatisation and centralisation in the energy sector.