Bhopal: Outsourced electricity workers in Madhya Pradesh have gone on an indefinite strike from today. Due to this, electricity services have started getting affected in the entire state. Employees are adamant about their demands.
A few days ago, Energy Minister Pradyuman Singh had assured to fulfill the demands of outsourced employees. But the demands were not fulfilled on time. Even before this only assurance was given. This is the reason that now all the employees have gone on indefinite strike.
Didn’t keep the promise
Outsourcing workers, there is a demand to merge with power companies. Electricity employees say that their delegation met the Energy Minister on 23 August regarding their demands. During that time the minister had assured to fulfill the demands after settling the problem. Electricity employees allege that the minister gave assurance but no written demand has been accepted yet. If they had got assurance of fulfilling the demands in writing, the employees would not have opted for the strike.
Under the leadership of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Outsourced Employees Organization, employees gathered in large numbers and staged a sit-in protest at the gate of the Govindpura Electricity Office in Bhopal. They say that the indefinite strike is being done under compulsion. Despite receiving memorandums and delegations several times, their demands are not being heeded. This strike will continue till their demands are accepted.
The impact on these services
There are 45,000 outsourced employees in the state’s power companies. They do different work related to the electricity department. Be it maintenance of electricity or other work, they are deployed in all. Due to the strike, their power has started going off. Consumers are worried about this. Apart from this, revenue collection, meter reading, bill distribution, consumer complaints, new connections, maintenance of lines, improvement work of fault fitters will also be affected. Electricity consumers are also facing problems.
