Linemen question Badal U-turn: ‘During Congress regime he supported our genuine demands’

It may be mentioned that after the linemen staged a protest at the SAD conference during Baisakhi Mela,Badal termed the incident as a conspiracy by the Congress. “Keep listening to me. These men have been sent by the Congress to spoil our show,” Badal had said

However,even with 206 of its members,including 33 women and six children,already being arrested,the union has refused to bow to the political pressure and said it will continue to protest at CM’s rallies and will gherao the ruling party MPs and MLAs at public functions.

Jagtar Singh,union leader from Bathinda,said,“In February this year,the High Court directed the PSPCL to start the recruitments then where is the hitch? We had cleared the interviews and we meet all the norms of PSPCL as per their advertisement given in January 2011. Is seeking jobs after clearing the tests wrong? PSPCL has already admitted that 4,300 posts of linemen are lying vacant. After advertising vacancy for 5,000 posts in January 2011,it recruited only 1,000. We are only demanding it to recruit the rest 4,000 linemen.”

PSPCL sources said that the linemen are seeking cut-off age limit for general candidates at 50 years and that for reserved candidates at 55 years,which is not acceptable to the state government.

However,the linemen claim that it is a wrong propaganda being spread by the PSPCL. “As per the advertisement given in January 2011,the cut off age limit for general candidates was 39 years and for reserved categories 44 years and we abide by the rule. We are surprised as to why we are being misquoted everywhere,” a union leader said.

The salary for these linemen was Rs 10,000 per month and the job is given on a two-year contract,but the state government is running away from the commitment it made,they alleged .

Meanwhile,out of the 206 arrested linemen,197 have been lodged in Faridkot jail and 9 others in Bathinda jail. These include a 2 months old child as well.