After suffering the harrowing ordeal of life without electricity and water for over 40 hours since Monday night, Chandigarh residents finally had some semblance of normalcy by Wednesday evening after the UT Powermen Union called off its strike and power supply resumed in most areas.
“Electricity was restored to nearly 95% city areas and more than 90% of the striking employees had returned to work by 7pm on Wednesday,” said UT adviser Dharam Pal.
In some parts like Manimajra and Industrial Areas, where supply remained irregular, Pal said it will be restored completely by Wednesday night.
After a day-long inertia on Tuesday, the administration had later at night imposed the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act (ESMA), prohibiting strikes for six months.
But having failed to get a grip of the situation, the administration was forced to request the army’s Western Command, Chandimandir, for help towards Tuesday midnight.
“Within an hour of our request, more than 100 personnel of Military Engineer Services (MES) were deputed in the city. They immediately started work in Sector 56. By morning, they had restored six feeders and power was restored in 60% of the affected areas. By noon, the figure reached 80% and after the striking staff joined work, we covered nearly 95% areas,” said Pal.
Union finally accepts UT’s assurances
{{/usCountry}}Union finally accepts UT’s assurances
{{/usCountry}}After the administration resumed discussions with the representatives of the Power Union on Wednesday, the employees decided to withdraw the strike on the condition that the letter of intent to the selected firm not be issued till March 10, 2022, when the case against power department’s privatisation will come up next before the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Notably, the administration had made the same offer to the union on Tuesday as well, but they had refused to accept it. “They were adamant against it at the time and were misguided by some political elements,” said Pal.
The administration also assured that reasonable sympathetic view will be taken regarding the employees who had joined duty on Wednesday.
“But appropriate legal action will be taken against those who will still remain absent from duty. The union, through an undertaking, assured the administration that they will not proceed on any strike now,” the adviser said.
The administration also assured the union of regular meetings on the issues raised by them with the respective officers with effect from March 2.
It has also imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the city, earmarking the Sector-25 Rally Ground for processions, rallies and dharnas. Similar gatherings will not be allowed elsewhere in the city. “We will not allow the union or anybody to stage dharnas in Sector 17,” said Pal.
Inquiry ordered into sabotage
Stating that though high-speed winds also played a role in the power outages on Tuesday, Pal claimed that it was largely an act of sabotage that caused such large-scale disruption.
The adviser particularly pointed out the cases of GMCH-32 and GMSH-16 where power outage started simultaneously with the union’s strike at midnight: “An inquiry by the secretary, engineering, has been ordered to investigate the sabotage and appropriate action will be taken against the saboteurs.”
The administration has also asked the police to investigate cases of proven sabotage and bring the culprits to justice.
‘We gauged the crisis, returned to work on Tuesday night’
Claiming that the electricity department employees started work to restore power on Tuesday night itself, UT Powermen Union’s general secretary Gopal Dutt Joshi said, “Even though we did not step back from our strike, we decided to return to work last night to mitigate people’s problems.”
“The administration assured us on Tuesday night that the letter of intent will not be issued till March 10. They were supposed to give this to us in writing by 10.30am on Wednesday, but it came only by late afternoon,” claimed Joshi.
The general secretary had also released a video on Tuesday night, asking employees to resume work and help the administration tide over the power crisis.
On the administration’s allegations of sabotage, Joshi said, “The administration failed to repair different faults, which are generally rectified quickly by our staff. This had a cascading affect, causing pan-city power outages. We had no role in it. Strong winds also caused disruption.”
“We had given the administration adequate time to prepare for the strike’s aftermath, but they didn’t even talk to us earlier,” added Joshi.
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