Uttar Pradesh (UP) power employees have threatened to proceed on indefinite strike if the process of privatization of power distribution divisions in seven districts was not rolled back by the state government. Earlier this month, Energy minister Srikant Sharma had said in the Assembly that there was no plan to privatize electricity distribution. However, the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has recently floated tenders to hand over work of power bill distribution, meter reading, revenue collection and installation, change of power meters to private companies — technically called Integrated Service Providers (ISPs) in seven districts.