Powermen demand new units

THE STATE?S power employees staged dharnas at all district headquarters and power stations in response to a call by the Vidyut Karmchari Morcha Sangathan to protest against the deepening power crisis and rampant power theft.

THE STATE’S power employees staged dharnas at all district headquarters and power stations in response to a call by the Vidyut Karmchari Morcha Sangathan to protest against the deepening power crisis and rampant power theft.

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At Shakti Bhawan, the dharna was jointly led by Morcha leaders Chandra Prakash Awasthi, Chhote Lal Dixit and Badruddin. They later handed over a 24-point charter of demands to UPPCL chairman and principal secretary (Energy) AK Khurana.

The demands included setting up new power units, checking political interference in drives against power theft, raising retirement age of employees to 60 years, and time-bound pay scales to employees.

No let-up in power crisis
There was no let-up in the prevailing power crisis on Wednesday as well. Despite the UPPCL importing over 3,000 MW of electricity from the Centre, the demand-supply gap continued to be more than 2,000 MW, as peak-hour demand for power hovered around 7,500 MW.

Support for PCL
On the other hand, the UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad came out in support of the UPPCL on the issue of over-drawing electricity from the grid. In a letter to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), Parishad president Avadhesh Kumar Verma said it was quite natural for the UPPCL to draw more electricity from the grid in view of increased demand in the State, coupled with shrunken State generation. He demanded that the UP’s power share in the unallocated power quota be increased.