Blackout in region as agitating power staff refuse to relent, Army steps in

Jammu, December 19

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The Army has been deployed to restore essential services hit by the ongoing strike of electricity department personnel here, officials said on Sunday.

They said the deployment was made following a request by the administration.

In a communication addressed to the Army, Jammu Divisional Commissioner Raghav Langer said due to the strike by electricity department personnel, essential services had been severely affected in Jammu region.

Seeking more posts, regular jobs

• Employees have presented a four-point formula to the government and claim there is no response yet.
• The demands include a white paper on non-fulfilment of recommendations of the unbundling report and failure to create positions at gazetted and non-gazetted levels, regularisation of daily wagers and PDD engineers.
• They are also demanding delinking their salary from grant-in-aid, a regular budget for PDD employees on deputation to different corporations and a white paper on service conditions of employees on deputation to power projects.

The Army acted swiftly and deployed its troops at critical electricity stations and water supply sources to restore supply, the officials said.

Earlier, angry residents of Jammu and Kashmir staged protests over total blackout in several parts of the region, as the strike by Power Development Department (PDD) employees against privatisation and other issues entered the second day, despite the administration’s request to resume work.

Over 20,000 employees of the power sector had boycotted work around midnight on Friday, in support of their demands, including shelving of a proposed joint venture between Jammu and Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation Limited and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

Employees across ranks, from linemen to senior engineers, belonging to various unions and associations, decided to go on indefinite strike after talks with the government failed. They staged demonstrations in the twin capital cities, besides at the district headquarters, for the second day on Sunday, a spokesperson for the employees’ coordination committee said.

An official spokesman said the government had engaged in several rounds of talks with the coordination committee of the power employees.

“During each round of talks, the government representatives have appealed to the power employees to call off their strike as people in both Jammu and Kashmir divisions are suffering. In the wake of Covid-19 contagion and nail-biting cold in both the divisions, the coordination committee of the power employees is requested to end its strike,” the spokesman said.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh expressed hope of a peaceful resolution to the issue at the earliest. “The administration is on the job… the time cannot be stopped as we have to keep pace with development in the rest of the country. The employees are part of the society and if they feel insecure, it is the responsibility of the officials to address their concerns and move forward along with them,” he told reporters here.

Meanwhile, National Conference vice-president and former CM Omar Abdullah asked the government to leave privatisation decisions to an elected government.

The striking employees have made it clear that the repairs and restoration work would not be undertaken at all unless the feeder is supplied to any hospital. — PTI

UT admn claims most Demands accepted

Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langer, said the government had already acceded to all demands of the striking PDD employees. The government had also decided to put on hold the proposed joint venture between Jammu and Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation Limited and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.