Strike Call by PSEB Staff
Migrant labourers roped in to bail out board
Chander Parkash
Tribune News Service

Ferozepur, April 13
Unmindful of risk involved in the job, the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) authorities have engaged migrant labourers to handle high tension (HT) wires in case its employees, striking on April 15-16, cause damage to the supply lines.

At many places in the state, the authorities concerned have also engaged students of electrical trade of polytechnic colleges and ITIs for pressing them into service in case the agitating employees cause disruption in power supply.

“We have left nothing to chance and have provided with alternative arrangements to maintain uninterrupted supply of electricity during the two-day against unbundling of PSEB,” pointed out a senior functionary of board on the condition of anonymity.

Admitting the fact there was risk to the lives of the migratory labourers and students if they handle HT wires and power grids, he, however, pointed out that they had been given preliminary training to handle electrical distribution equipments.

The PSEB authorities have already summoned technical and trained hands from NTPC, NHPC, Bhakra Beas Management Board, Power Grid Corporation and PWD (B&R). They would be deployed around power grids and other vital installations during the strike period.

PSEB member SC Sabharwal today said the railway authorities had promised to deploy its men in addition to the PSEB manpower at seven traction stations from where the power was being supplied to 153 km-long electrified rail route from Sahnewal to Amritsar so that uninterrupted power could be ensured to the trains running on that section.

He also stated that in a meeting between PSEB chief HS Brar and PK Shrivastava, chief electrical engineer, Northern Railway, Baroda, the railway authorities had promised that if need arose, they might deploy their technically trained men at other locations in the state.

Umesh Dewan adds from Patiala: With April 15 approaching, various PSEB unions are gearing up for protest. Not only PSEB unions, but also farmer associations are contemplating to launch an agitation in case the government issues notification for the unbundling of the board.

State president and general secretary of the Council of Junior Engineers of the PSEB (Regd) Swaran Singh and Davinder Singh, respectively, stated that PSEB employees and junior engineers would stage a peaceful agitation. “We opposed various undemocratic steps being proposed by the Punjab government against the struggling employees of the PSEB who are going to observe a two-day strike from April 15-16 against the unbundling of the PSEB,” they added.

They also reiterated that JEs/additional assistant engineers will also go on strike.

Rajay Deep adds from Bathinda: On the one hand, the government is busy making efforts to deal with the two-day strike of the PSEB employees, on the other as many as 22 organisations have announced that they would stretch the protest till April 27.

Representatives of the organisations, which include unions of farmers, labourers and PSEB employees, assembling under the leadership of labour union leader Gurnam Singh Daud held a secret meeting in the Malwa region yesterday.

They decided that besides the strike, volunteers of the joint committee would wear black badges and hoist black flags at their houses and tubewells to observe protest on April 15.