GNDTP staff oppose field duty

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 12

Irked with the PSPCL management for planning to issue transfer orders to as many as 230 employees of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant, members of the GNDTP Employees Taalmel Committee today blocked the main gate of the thermal plant and didn’t allow anyone to enter the plant for two hours in the morning.

Owing to the protest, even the management officials remained stranded outside the gate of the plant.

Raising anti-government slogans, the thermal staff stated that they had gathered information that the PSPCL management, under pressure from the state government, would soon be issuing transfer orders to 230 skilled and unskilled workers of the plant.

“Earlier, the management had transferred 108 employees to the Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat. Since the employees were transferred to a thermal plant, we didn’t oppose the move much. But this time, the employees are being assigned field duties, which is not acceptable as it will be a completely new territory of work for them,” said Gursewak Singh, president of the union.

Singh added that the government was trying to save its face by claiming that the employees would be given training before they are assigned duties.

“A large number of employees have crossed the age when they could have learnt new operations. The government had initially promised that the GNDTP employees will be shifted to other thermal plants, but now it is retracting from its promise,” he said.

The protesters added that taking up the issues with the GNDTP management was not yielding any results as the management was also under pressure of the state government.

The union members demanded that in case the government was adamant on its decision of shutting down the thermal plant, it should transfer the employees to other thermal plants as assigning them field work could be dangerous and cause damage to property.