NEW DELHI: Plans by 600,000 power workers to stage a one-day strike on Tuesday against government plans to reform the sector may leave people in darkness in some states, Union leaders said.

But there would be no protests in Delhi, and in some regions of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, said federation president E Balanandan.

The strike is planned to start at 8:00 am 0230 GMT on Tuesday and will come on top of a nationwide postal strike under way since last Tuesday by workers pressing for higher wages.

The government has faced a spate of strikes recentlyagainst its planned reforms and privatisations aimed at making the economy more efficient and to spur local and foreign investment.

The power workers are unhappy over sectoral reform,including the privatisation of state electricity boards SEB. State utilities or the SEBs are being unbundled and privatised to turn them into profit centres to pay for power supply from private generators.

The aim is to draw private generators who, fearing paymentdefaults, have shied away from investing in new capacity.

The SEBs, the only distributor of power to consumers inmost states, have been mismanaged, leading to power theft, subsidised or free power and widespread payment defaults by consumers, government officials say.

But the unions say the power reforms have led to a rise inpower tariffs and slippages in installation of generation facilities.

quot;The government…should fully understand the negativeimpact of these polices on the Indian population, so that more affordable power can be provided,quot; the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers said.