Power staff go on strike
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 21
On a call given by the PSEB Joint Forum, Punjab, thousands of non-gazetted employees of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) today remained on a statewide strike in protest against the failure of the state government to implement the decisions taken at the time of the unbundling of the PSEB into two power utilities in April this year.

The employees will remain on strike till midnight. The agitating employees staged protest demonstrations across the state and claimed that their strike was near total.

Speaking to The Tribune, PSEB Joint Forum leaders Surinder Pehalwan, Manjit Chahal, Karamchand Bhardwaj and BS Sekhon claimed that 90 to 98 per cent employees remained on strike in Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Khanna, Sangrur, Patiala, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Faridkot and other major districts of the state.

“On April 16, when the PSEB was bifurcated, the state government had assured that a tripartite agreement will be signed to protect the service/working conditions in 10-day time. Besides, it was also announced that demands of employees pertaining to salaries, increments and promotions would be accepted in 30-day time. But, even after five-month time, the government has failed to fulfil its promise,” said Chahal and Bhardwaj.

Contrary to the claims of employees, chairman-cum-MD of the PSPCL KD Chaudhry issued a statement, which read, “the PSPCL management thanks all PSPCL employees, who attended to their duties, despite the call for strike given by a section of PSPCL employees’ unions.”

The agitating employees further said reports received till afternoon indicated that strike received a massive response, as the employees did not went to duty at thermal plants of Ropar, Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat.

Employees have threatened to intensify the agitation in the near future in case the government and the managements of the PSPCL and the PSTCL did not accept their demands.

The PSEB Engineers’ Association has also condemned the non-fulfilment of the assurances given by the Chief Minister to engineers.

“We have now, decided to hold zonal-level dharnas. Also, now our association will adopt policy of non-cooperation with the managements of both power corporations and the state government,” announced association president HS Bedi and general secretary Bhupinder Singh.

However, KD Chaudhry claimed that the strike had virtually no impact in the PSPCL Secretariat and its other offices at Patiala as the attendance was full.