Power restoration gets late

16,000 contract staff on strike delays recovery ops in power board

The waiting time for power restoration works in the city has increased to 3-4 hours instead of the usual 10-15 minutes thanks to the ongoing strike of the TS Vidyut Contract Employees’ JAC committee.

Around 16,000 contract employees of TStransco, TSNPDCL and TSSPDCL have been on strike for the last 11 days and neither the management nor the state government have met the striking employees yet.

“We had a three-hourlong power cut in Lakdika-Pul but after three hours of lodging the complaint, we got a response that since the contract employees were on strike, restoration would take more time," said Mr Mustaq Shah, a resident.

The contract employ- ees are the backbone of the electricity transmission system. From operating computers to repairing the equipment, they do everything. They have been on strike since May 2, demanding that the contractors be done away with by the department, as their presence has led to a lot of corruption. Also the 400 - 500 con- tractors, who control the 22,000 contract electricity employees, take a cut of Rs 1500 from each employee per month, out of their pay of Rs 8,000. They also receive 10 percent of the salary amounts of the employees as agent fees from the discoms.

"The entire electricity machinery gets affected if the contract workers do not work, as they are involved in all levels of work. We have been on strike since the last 11 days but no one from the management or the state government has come to even talk to us," said Mr S. Sailu, member of Telangana Vidyut Contract Employee JAC committee, who is currently on a hunger strike over the issue.