Power staff to begin stir from May 11
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 15
A year after the Punjab government bifurcated the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), the non-gazetted employees working with the two power utilities of the state - Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) - have announced the launch of a state-level agitation from May 11.

According to the employees, despite giving assurance that all the demands of the employees would be accepted within a month after unbundling, the state government has not fulfilled its promise. President of the Council of Junior Engineers PSEB Swaran Lal decried the state government for the non-implementation of the recommendations of the Wage Formulation Committee (WFC).

“The rate of increment had been kept as 3 per cent instead of 3.5 per cent as mentioned in the WFC report,” he rued. Swaran added that as many as 20,000 posts of linemen, assistant linemen and sub-station attendants are lying vacant, but the government is not initiating the recruitment drive.

The employees further stated that prior to the unbundling of the PSEB, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had assured the employees that all their pending demands would be accepted within one month after the division of the PSEB.

“It is really unfortunate that the government has failed to fulfil its promise. Now, we have decided to start a state-level agitation by holding a massive demonstration at Patiala on May 11,” said Manjit Singh Chahal, spokesman of the PSEB Employees Joint Forum.

Chahal added that as per the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations, the arrears of the employees, with effect from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2009, amounted to Rs 2,000 crore and hence the state government must clear the arrears in one go and that too in cash. “But in the Punjab budget 2011, it has been announced that the arrears will be cleared in three instalments,” he added.

Representatives of the various other employees unions condemned the decision to outsource the work of shifting of electricity meters outside the premises of the consumers. “We will not allow the managements of PSPCL and PSTCL to award different works pertaining to the power sector on contract basis,” announced leaders of the PSEB Employees Joint Forum.