Unions out of sync with powermen

Sangeeta Tandon, an assistant engineer in the erstwhile UPSEB, added, “Top leaders of employee associations in the power sector in UP have a single demand — to rollback the decision to trifurcate UPSEB. But the common striking employees’ concerns are different.” She feels that the governmentshouldn’t hike power tariffs dramatically adding “the common striking employees want transparency in the trifurcation, assurance that their terminal benefits like pensions and PF will be protected and information that which of the three new corporations will be their new employer.” And since the government has already promised that salaries as well as terminal benefits will be protected, this obviously means that large sections of workers have been striking over misplaced fears.

A point several workers raised, at the GPO lawns as well as outside the Shakti Bhawan, is that the government’s own credibility is so low that most of them suspect the Government’s motives, no matter how noble they sound. “If the State Government can support 100-odd ministers when its coffers are empty, why are reforms meant only for UPSEB?” says an agitated Ragini. “The power minister Naresh Aggarwal does not come from an affluent background but today he has a Rs four crore property in Lucknow, and is building a five starhotel in Goa. Why is there no inquiry on this by the CBI and plugging of leakages?”, says another employee S K Mishra.