UP prepares to deal with strike by power employees

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IANS | 16 Mar, 2023
The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) management has made elaborate arrangements to deal with power employees' proposed 72-hour token strike from midnight on Thursday.

The strike is in response to the call given by the UP Power Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) to press its demand for implementation of the December 3, 2022 agreement.

UP Energy Minister A.K. Sharma, while adopting a tough stance on the strike, said the power employees found disrupting power supply would face the consequences.

Power employees are demanding the removal of the UPPCL Chairman, rollback plan for privatisation of the power sector, and restoration of the old pension scheme.

Over 50,000 power employees, mostly contractual employees, have staged protest demonstrations at district headquarters across the state.

Joint Action Committee convener Shailendra Dubey said the Energy Minister had entered into a written agreement with the JAC on December 3 last year and had assured to fulfil all the demands. He said no action had been taken by the UPPCL for accepting the demands during the last three months.

Dubey said that all the employees and engineers of the power corporation would proceed on a 72-hour token strike on the night of March 16 as the talks with the Energy Minister had failed on Tuesday.

He said that the UPPCL was not honouring the agreement signed on December 3. The agreement, according to him, promised, among other things, time-bound pay scales, widening of the scope of cashless treatment and brake on any action regarding privatisation.

The agreement that the employees signed with the UPPCL management before ending the strike then, promises employee welfare and discourages any action related to privatisation.

Dubey said that there was no further scope for talks now.

"More than one lakh power employees will participate in the strike in the state. The UPPCL management alone will be responsible for any untoward incident during the strike," he warned.

Meanwhile, UPPCL officials said that the power corporation had made preparations to deal with the strike.

A senior UPPLC official said that Commissioners and District Magistrates had been alerted and asked to regularly review power supply situation in districts under them in close coordination with Power Department officials.

"Control rooms have also been set up in Shakti Bhawan and in each discom so that consumers may lodge their complaint regarding power supply and the corporation would also seek services of retired personnel as well as the NTPC to run power plants," the spokesman said.