Hours before the start of a 72 hour-long strike by the UT electricity department, a meeting between UT officials and the Powermen Union on Monday failed to reach any conclusion. The strike is scheduled to start from midnight Monday. Although the administration has already communicated to the Municipal Corporation (MC) to arrange alternative sources of supply and seek assistance from Haryana and Punjab for manpower, there are chances of power and water supply breakdown. “We have made all necessary arrangements to tackle any kind of emergency. The employees of the engineering department, MC, were assigned the jobs. A few power staff from Haryana have arrived. Punjab will send skilled staff tomorrow. We have also roped Chandigarh police to maintain any law and order situation that erupts due to a power lockdown in the city. No work, no pay rule will be implemented against the protesting employees”, Chief Engineer, CB Ojha, said. There are 14 substations of 66KV and five substations of 33KV in Chandigarh. At least 2,500 11KV distribution electricity transformers are located in Chandigarh. The electricity department caters to 2.47 lakh consumers divided into nine different categories. According to the official figures, of the total consumers, 2.14 lakh are domestic, which accounts for more than 87 per cent of total consumers. The remaining 23 per cent belong to the commercial, small power, medium supply, large supply, bulk supply, public lighting, agriculture power and temporary supply. Gopal Dutt Joshi, President UT Powermen Union, said, “A meeting was held with Advisor Dharam Pal and chief engineer, CB Ojha. No outcome in the meeting. We are going to go on a strike from Monday midnight. We will join back on February 25.” The administration has set up three special control rooms: - Sector 17 (0172-2703242 - Sector 9 (0172-2740475) -Citizen Facilitation Centre (0172-4639999)
