Government accepts some demands of power staff
Strike cripples services
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 8
Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) KD Chaudhri has said that the Punjab Government has accepted additional grade pay of Rs 150 for the categories pertaining to non-gazetted employees. He also said that various allowances, including Risk Duty, Protection, Workshop, Ledger-keeping, Special Allowance to JE-II/JE-I and Shift Duty Allowances, were being doubled for the respective categories. He further said that orders in this regard would be issued soon after the receipt of a formal communication from the Punjab Government.

Chaudhri has also appealed to the employees to call off the strike. “Since electricity is the lifeline of Punjab, PSPCL employees should resume their duties, in view of the larger interests of the state. The employees should not put the consumers to unnecessary inconvenience,” he said.

Chaudhri thanked all officers, supervisors and employees of the PSPCL, who attended to their duties despite the strike call. “The principle of no work no pay will remain in force and striking employees will be liable to strict disciplinary action,” he announced.

Chaudhri claimed that the PSPCL Secretariat and all other offices of the PSPCL situated in Punjab functioned smoothly with good attendance of employees. “All thermal and hydro generation plants operated normally. PSPCL has made adequate arrangements to maintain a regular power supply to all its consumers throughout the state,” he claimed. He also regretted inconvenience, if any, caused to the consumers of the PSPCL on account of the strike.

Earlier, services in various offices of the PSPCL and PSTCL remained crippled as thousands of non-gazetted employees and junior engineers of the two power utilities went on a two-day statewide strike today. In the wake of the strike, the cash counters and complaint centres of the power corporation across Punjab remained closed. The joint forum leaders claimed that no transaction took place at any of the cash counters. The strike will continue till December 9 midnight.

It is learnt that employees and junior engineers in Patiala, Sangrur, Mohali, Ropar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Khanna, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Nawashahr, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and other parts of Punjab remained on strike and also staged demonstrations at the subdivision level.

“Almost 85 per cent staff remained on strike today,” claimed Employees Joint Forum spokesman Manjit Singh Chahal. Joint forum leaders Surinder Singh Pehalwan and Karam Chand Bhardwaj said when the erstwhile PSEB was bifurcated in mid-April this year, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had assured the employees that salary-related issues would be sorted out in one month’s time. “Now, seven months have passed but our demands have still not been conceded by the managements of the PSPCL and the PSTCL and all government assurances have proved to be a farce,” they rued.

State president and general secretary of the Council of Junior Engineers Sawarn Lal and Davinder Singh, respectively, accused the PSPCL management of adopting an “indifferent” attitude towards their long-pending demands, which include reimbursement of cost of 30 litres of petrol per month to field JEs, Additional Assistant Engineers (AAEs) as per the agreement dated March 14, 1998, and enhancement in promotion avenue from JE/AAE to Assistant Engineer (AE).

The JEs also alleged that the PSPCL management always settled issues related to senior engineers, which was sheer discrimination with them. The joint forum and council leaders reiterated that in case the Punjab Government failed to concede their demands soon, they would intensify their agitation.