UP power engineers’ mass leave from April 4, delegations meet new energy minister

The power staff on Tuesday boycotted work on the second and the last day of the stir as a part of their ongoing protests against alleged harassment by the UP Power Corporation Ltd

Power engineers in Uttar Pradesh will proceed on mass leave for three days starting April 4 in response to a call by UP Rajya Vidyut Parishad Abhiyanta Sangh and Junior Engineer Sangathan as a part of their ongoing protests against alleged harassment by the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL).

The power staff on Tuesday boycotted work on the second and the last day of the stir as a part of their ongoing protests against alleged harassment by the UP Power Corporation Ltd (Sourced)

“We have already collected applications for leave from as many as 4500 engineers and all the applications that we receive will be submitted to the management very soon,” Abhiyanta Sangh general secretary Prabhat Singh said. “The non-cooperation against the UPPCL management continued on the 10th consecutive day on Tuesday,” he added.

Engineers, he said, were boycotting all the meetings and videoconferences being organised by the management. The Abhiyanta Sangh leaders also appealed to chief minister Yogi Adityanath to intervene and a delegation met newly appointed energy minister AK Sharma to apprise him of the issues.

On the other hand, UP Power Officers’ Association’s delegation led by its working president and UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avdhesh Kumar Verma also met the new energy minister and told him that their members would abstain from the mass leave call given by the Abhiyanta Sangh. However, he said the association would oppose any move that sought to privatise the power sector.

Meanwhile, the state’s power staff on Tuesday boycotted work on the second and the last day of the nationwide stir joined by the employees of various government departments and PSUs. A delegation led by All-India Power Engineers’ Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey met the new energy minister here and briefed him of why they were opposed to the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill.

“We demand rollback of the Electricity Amendment Bill, restoration of the old pension scheme for power employees and integration of all the energy corporations into one entity, among other things,’ Dubey said.