U.P. Electricity Department workers call off strike after government assurance

Due to strike by Uttar Pradesh electricity employees village are the most effected, here is a scene on the outskirts of Lucknow on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: SANDEEP SAXENA

The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Department employees on Sunday withdrew their strike after more than 60 hours, following a third round of talks between the State Energy Minister A.K. Sharma and the workers’ union representatives, after the assurance given by the U.P. government that it would sympathetically consider the demands — the announcement that roughly 3,000 employees who have been terminated during the protest would be given their jobs back and cases would be taken back against 22 workers who were charged under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (VKSSS) convenor Shailendra Dubey announced the decision after the U.P. Energy Minister Arvind Sharma said that the government would sympathetically consider their demands. “After the assurance from the Uttar Pradesh government, the employees have decided to give some time to the State government so that their demands could be fulfilled,” said Mr. Dubey. The Energy Minister, Arvind Sharma asked the employees to return to work immediately so that supply of electricity could be restored in places where it had got affected.

Support for strike

Since Thursday, roughly one lakh employees and engineers of the Power Department from across Uttar Pradesh started a three-day strike under the U.P. Rajya Vidyut Karmachari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, demanding regularisation of pay, regularisation of contractual workers, reintroduction of the old pension scheme (OPS), rolling back of the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, and many other issues. Due to the ongoing strike, maintenance, repair and redressing of public grievances related to electricity in the State, remained affected.

Earlier the U.P. government had threatened to invoke the National Security Act (NSA) if public properties got damaged during the strike. “Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) has been invoked across the State. If those employees involved in the strike damage properties or are found preventing others from performing their duties, then NSA will be invoked,” said the U.P. Energy Minister to mediapersons.

The U.P. strike got support from various quarters with the National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE)— a pan-India grouping of various federations of electricity employees and engineers, extending solidarity to the strike.