Assured of PF money return, power men defer boycott plan

LUCKNOW The agitating power men have deferred their plan for a statewide indefinite work boycott from November 28 to press their demand that the state government

LUCKNOW The agitating power men have deferred their plan for a statewide indefinite work boycott from November 28 to press their demand that the state government give guarantee for repayment of their over Rs 2,600 crore provident fund (PF) money, which is parked in the scam-tainted Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), a Mumbai-based private company.

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Their agitation deferment decision came after delegations of the UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti and UP Power Officers’ Association separately held meetings with energy minister Shrikant Sharma and UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman-cum-principal secretary Arvind Kumar and reached a written agreement.

The management and employees’ unions hammered out a mutually agreeable solution to end the deadlock that has been continuing for more than two weeks.

“We have deferred the work boycott plan and ended the ongoing agitation after the UPPCL signed a written agreement with us for the safe return of the PF from the DHFL,” Sangharsh Samiti spokesman Rajeev Kumar Singh said.

“We have ended the agitation after a written agreement and have asked our engineers to work hard to make up for revenue loss caused due to the protracted agitation,” added Power Officers’ Association working president Awadhesh Kumar Verma.

As per the written agreement, the power sector employees ‘trust’ will employ all legal tools to retrieve the entire PF amount from the DHFL and invest the same elsewhere as per norms. In case, there comes any hurdle in retrieving the money despite all the legal efforts and the ‘trust’ finds it difficult to make regular repayments, the UPPCL will pitch in to make up for the deficit to that extent from its own resources.

“If the UPPCL finds itself unable to make the desired funds available to the ‘trust’, then the state government will provide interest-free loan, as required, to the UPPCL to ensure that the employees do not have a problem in getting repayment of their PF dues,” the written accord says.

Earlier, the management briefed the delegations of the steps taken so far to get the money back, with interest, from the DHFL.