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UP government softens stand over striking employees

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh government today softened its stand on terminating the services of employees failing to turn up for duty till the expiry deadline set for Wednesday morning.

Briefing reporters on Wednesday evening, UP chief secretary Yogendra Narain said, "Since more than 2000 striking workers returned to work in four districts, it was in the fitness of things to extend the deadline." He said, "I am sure more employees will come back."

However, there seemed to be no end in sight to the continued impasse, as both sides continued to stick to their guns. While employees were insisting on immediate withdrawal of the government's decision to restructure the state power board, the chief secretary completely ruled out any rescinding of the official notification in this regard.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and UP's minister for housing and urban development Lalji Tandon held talks with prominent national trade union leaders who had arrived in the capital city to express solidarity with the agitating 87,000 engineers and employees of the UP State Electricity Board.

The employees are protesting against restructuring of the board and large-scale reforms in the power sector which commenced last week with the trifurcation of the giant organisation into three independent corporate entities.

The government was hopeful of an end to the five-day old impasse following encouraging talks with the central trade union leaders. The talks did have a sobering effect on the government, which then restrained from sacking any striking employee today. As many as 65 engineers had been fired so far, for participating in the strike, that had been declared 'illegal' by the high court bench in Lucknow.

However, UPSEB engineers and employees joint action committee convenor Shailendra Dubey ruled out any possibility of a compromise. "Nothing short of rescinding of the government notification whereby the restructuring process had been started, was acceptable to us", he told this scribe over telephone from hiding, as the police have been set after all prominent leaders.

Energy Minister Naresh Agarwal, whom the central trade union leaders refused to meet, held separate parleys with some trade union leaders of the UPSEB who had been booked under the National Security Act. The talks were held after the five arrested leaders were brought from neighbouring Sitapur district jail to Lucknow yesterday. The strikers see a 'design' in this. "The minister was trying to intimidate the arrested leaders and force them to come to terms," they said.

Even as the tug-of-war continued between the government and the employees, UP's population of 160 million continue to face the brunt of the strike. Despite official claims that the state's generation had improved, large parts of the state continue to go without power for the past four days. Said Narain, "Since thermal generation had increased from 816 MW yesterday to over 1300 MW today and hydro electric generation was maintained at about 340 MW, the import of power from the state-run National Thermal Power Corporation had been brought down from 3050 MW to 2600 MW."

According to him , "The generation was being maintained with the help of experts from NTPC as well as the Indian army." This was besides the soldiers deployed at key power installations for ensuring their safety and protection.

However reports pouring in from the state's 83 districts indicated that the situation continued to remain grim. Even in the state capital, several localities had to go without power and breakdowns could not be attended to for over 72 hours. Irate mobs staged sit-in at some places, while water supply remained disrupted in certain areas.

Meanwhile, the high court has admitted a public interest litigation filed by local journalist Mudit Mathur, against the government's move to restructure the board. While the court has fixed the hearing of the case for February, it directed the government to ensure the safety of families of striking employees who were being allegedly intimidated by the administration. The petitioner had pointed out that the restructuring of the power board was neither in public interest nor in the interest of the employees.

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