Discom employees go on strike, power supply not affected
Employees of four power utilities in Haryana have started a two-day strike from Wednesday though the state government imposed Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1974, barring electricity employees from going on strike for six months.
Employees of four power utilities in Haryana have started a two-day strike from Wednesday though the state government imposed Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1974, barring electricity employees from going on strike for six months.
The employees are protesting against the proposed privatisation of maintenance in certain sub-divisions and the sacking of contractual staff.
In Gurgaon, about 78% employees of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) went on strike but there was no disruption in power supply. Barring outages caused by local faults, the strike did not have any significant impact on the supply.
“There was no sabotage or interruption in power distribution. Arrangements for additional manpower were made to handle the situation,” Sanjeev Chopra, superintending engineer (operations) DHBVN, said.
Representatives of various discom employees unions claimed they were away from work and protested in a peaceful manner.
Hundreds of employees of four power utilities – Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited, Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and DHBVN gathered outside circle offices and shouted slogans against the state government.
The employees are protesting against the proposed privatisation of maintenance in 23 sub-divisions of two power discoms and the sacking of contractual staff. The state government has decided to privatise the maintenance part of 11 sub-divisions of DHBVN and 12 sub-divisions of UHBVN.
Showing non-compliance with the government order, the employees on Tuesday tore and burnt copies of the ESMA across the state.
“We are protesting in a peaceful manner. The government has failed to listen to our demands. So we do not listen to its orders. The decision to privatise maintenance part is an attack on the rights of employees,” Mukesh Bhayana, circle secretary of Haryana State Electricity Board Workers’ Union, said.
Managing director of DHBVN Arun Kumar Verma said power supply was normal except a few breakdowns. “We have outsourced staff to handle maintenance and other issues,” he said.
The discom deployed executive engineers as nodal officers and deployed four junior engineers at the call centre in Gurgaon. Manpower was hired from private agencies and duty magistrates were assigned responsibility of law and order.
Besides, the police was deployed at sub-stations and prohibitory orders under section 144 was imposed within 200 metres of circle offices.
