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Talks trip, power stir in UP a certainty

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Army personnel have been deployed together with engineers of the National Thermal Power Corporation to man the major power installations in Uttar Pradesh, where 93,000 employees of the UP State Electricity Board will go on strike a few hours from now, official sources said late Monday evening.

The strike call was given in protest against the government's decision to bifurcate the giant loss-making public undertaking, whose reorganisation has been made a pre-condition for sanction of a much-needed Rs 15 billion World Bank assistance.

UP's energy minister Naresh Agarwal personally visited two main thermal power stations at Obra and Anpara. Later, he said in Lucknow on Sunday evening: "We have finalised all arrangements to entrust the charge of generation at the 1500 mega-watt Obra power house and the 2000 mega-watt Anpara power house to NTPC and army personnel by tomorrow afternoon."

In addition to ensuring smooth working of these power plants, the state has already arranged to receive about 1,000 MW from NTPC with a view to insuring uninterrupted power supply here.

He said, "No disruption of power supply will be allowed at any cost," while warning that the government was also all set to deal with any kind of sabotages. "Saboteurs will be booked under the National Security Act," he declared, while adding, "After all, we cannot allow a pressure group to hold the 180 million people of the state to ransom."

Perhaps, this was the first time that any government had decided to take the UPSEB's gigantic workforce head on. "Let it be once and for all," Chief Minister Kalyan Singh told Rediff On The NeT on Thursday. He condemned the resolve of the employees to proceed on strike. He did not mince words: "Let them know this time we mean business."

Agarwal, who had succeeded in forging a divide in the 7000-strong workforce of UPSEB engineers, was confident that the strike would not last more than two or three days. "There is a good percentage of engineers who have resolved not to join the strike," he claimed, while pointing out how one of the associations had already declared their stand of keeping off.

"This association has a strength of about 1,600 engineers, who have pledged support to the government," the minister added.

He further pointed out that the government was also prepared to recruit new engineers in case of need, though he hoped that such a situation would not arise.

On the other hand a spokesman of the newly formed Joint Action Committee of PSEB employees lashed out at what he termed as the government's "anti-people approach" in reorganising the state electricity board. "All this was being done under the pressure on the World Bank and if the government has decided to buckle down now, the day was not far wen mass retrenchment would also follow.

In an apparently relenting mood, the employees action committee has even gone to the extent of making an offer to reconsider their strike call, "provided the state government declares a total freeze on power tariff for the next ten years in the interest of the common man."

However, with battlelines drawn, a showdown was imminent as the minister made it clear, ''We are gone past that stage where we could reopen any kind of dialogue; we are willing to talk to them only if they first withdraw their strike call."

UNI

Business News

Uttar Pradesh