POWERMEN’S WORK BOYCOTT CONTINUES ON SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAY

Power engineers and employees’ indefinite work boycott against the top management continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, even as chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra held a meeting with the energy and the home department officials to deal with the situation if the agitation became prolonged.

Uttar Pradesh Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti convenor Shailendra Dubey said that power employees posted in generation plants, at transmission and distribution sub stations and in system operations had been exempted from joining the work boycott in the current phase of the agitation.

“But we will be forced to proceed on total strike if our legitimate demands are not met,” he warned. Dubey warned of serious consequences if any penal action was taken against the agitating personnel.

Meanwhile, the chief secretary is learnt to have held a meeting with the energy and the home departments’ top officials to take stock of the situation and discuss the strategy to deal with the same if it stretches out.

End stir: Power min

Energy minister AK Sharma on Wednesday appealed to power employees to end their agitation in the larger interest of consumers. Replying to a question in a press conference here, he said that on Tuesday he met employees’ leaders and listened to their grievances. “The government and the UPPCL are both serious about power employees’ demands and efforts are being made to resolve the same. Hence, there is no need for them to continue the work boycott,” Sharma said.