The worst is over: Protesting Chandigarh power dept employees call off strike

The administration assured the powermen that it will issue the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the firm selected for privatization of UT electricity department only on March 10, when the Punjab and Haryana High Court is scheduled to hear the matter pertaining to the privatization of the department.

Notably, in 2020, the Chandigarh administration had decided to privatize the department and later the UT Powermen Union approached the high court against this move.

The UT administration was to handover the LoI to the Eminent Electricity Distribution Ltd, a Kolkata-based firm, on March 1.

After the meeting, UT Powermen Union president Dhian Singh said they have called off the strike.
Employees of the electricity department had gone on a strike on late Monday night against UT Chandigarh administration’s move to privatise the department. The administration on Tuesday had requisitioned personnel from the Military Engineering Service (MES).

Addressing the media, Dharam Pal, Advisor to the UT Administrator claimed that the staff has joined duty and power to most of the areas has been restored. “Some areas might still be affected but we will restore (power) in those areas as well by today evening,” Pal said.

UT Powermen Union president Dhian Singh too confirmed that they have called off the strike. The meeting came soon after an FIR was registered at Police Station 3 against some union leaders under ESMA, which was invoked Tuesday night, banning strikes by the electricity department for six months.

Pal said that on union’s requested, “the Deputy Commissioner has assured that a reasonable sympathetic view will be taken regarding such employees who joined their duty Wednesday”. Appropriate legal action will be taken against those employees who will still be absent from duty, he further said.
Earlier, the MES personnel arrived in Chandigarh late on Tuesday to help restore the disrupted power supply. The team was led by Col Jasdeep Sandhu, adviser-cum-principal director, Civil Military Affairs, Western Command.

Amid allegations of sabotage leading to the unprecedented power outage, it took the Army personnel nearly six hours to detect a fault in the 66KV sub-station situated in Sector 56 and to rectify it.

“It was a tedious task. Our men concluded that the Fault Finding System at the sub-station was completely discharged. UT administration provided generators. We first rectified the Fault Finding System at Sector 56 sub-station followed by sub-stations at Sectors 53 and 43,” Col Sandhu said.
The MES team included seven senior officers, 10 Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and 55 personnel. Later, technical staff was called in from Patiala, Ambala and Delhi.

Col Sandhu said, “It is for the first time in Chandigarh that army was called in for restoring the electricity supply”.

Pal said nearly 100 MES personnel and another around 80 electricity employees from Punjab and Haryana will be staying in Chandigarh for next 10 days.

Earlier, Pal instructed the Secretary, UT Engineering Department, to investigate the possible reasons behind the power breakdown, especially at GMCH-32 and GMSH-16.

The meeting between the union members and UT officials was held in the office of Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh. Those present included SSP Manoj Kumar Meena, SP Ketan Bansal, Dhian Singh, Powermen Union general secretary Gopal Dutt Joshi, and senior vice president Amrik Singh, among others.