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Power corp employees boycott work against EPF scam
NOIDA: Hundreds of power employees and engineers of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), under the banner of Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti
NOIDA: Hundreds of power employees and engineers of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL), under the banner of Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (VKSSS), began a 48-hour work boycott over the illegal investment of over ₹4,122 crore of their provident fund (PF) corpus in scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL).
The strike began at 8am Monday and protesters gathered outside the main gate of Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) chief engineer’s office in Sector 16. The demonstrators sought a government guarantee for the safe return of their money invested in DHFL.
The scam had surfaced a few weeks ago after which UPPCL filed FIRs against UP State Power Sector Employees Trust secretary Praveen Kumar Gupta and former UPPCL director, finance, Sudhanshu Dwivedi. They were arrested Saturday.
As per the complaint, in December 2016, on the proposal of secretary Gupta, Dwivedi and then managing director AP Mishra approved investment in PNB housing. In March 2017, Gupta and Dwivedi invested ₹2,631 crore in DHFL, a Mubmbai-based firm without requisite approval.
The investment, according to sources was made in the form of FDs between March 2017 and December 2018. The company returned around ₹1,000 crore after which it stopped payment.
The DHFL promoters were recently grilled by the enforcement directorate for their alleged links with a company owned by Iqbal Mirchi, Mumbai blasts accused Dawood Ibrahim’s former aide.
The power employees are now raising questions over the decision of investing their general and contributory provident fund money with an unsecure and shady firm in gross violation of rules.
A total of 1,680 power corporation employees joined the protest Monday.
However, barring one incident of five-minute power cut in Chhajarsi, the agitation did not cause power problems in Noida.
PVVNL chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh, who is also a member of VKSSS, said units generating and supplying power have been exempted from the protest to prevent a grid failure. “To resolve the power problems of consumers during the ongoing agitation, a few linemen were kept out of the protest,” he said.
VKSSS Noida convener Jitendra Shandilya said they will continue with the agitation until the government issues a gazette notification taking responsibility for the safe return of their money.
“We demand the immediate arrest of the chairman of the corporation and other IAS officers responsible for the scam. It is only under the regime of the present chairman that an investment of nearly ₹4,122 crore has been done,” he said.
“Funds over 99% were deliberately invested in their three ‘favourite’ companies, of which 65% alone in DHFL. The officials involved in this scam adopted all illegal means to share the spoils of this loot,” Shandilya said, adding that the government must recover the amount from the involved officials.
The agitators were also demanding the immediate release of a white paper relating to investment of GPF (government provident fund) and CPF (contributory provide fund) by the state government.
On the other hand, following the directives issued by the state home department, the district police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure safety of demonstrators, who had not taken part in the work boycott.
