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UPSEB workers climb down, call off strike

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The eleven-day-long strike by employees of the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board ended at midnight tonight in what observers see as a victory for the state government and votaries of privatisation elsewhere in the country.

The strike was called off following protracted talks between representatives of the workers and the state government.

Energy Minister Naresh Aggarwal, chief of the Loktantrik Congress Party, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, told reporters late at night that the strikers had agreed to resume duty from midnight.

But Aggarwal said the government had refused to concede the main demand of the strikers, that the restructuring of the UPSEB and its trifurcation be withdrawn.

The government only agreed to hold in abeyance its plan for ultimate privatisation of the power board. Earlier, the plan was to have been put into effect in three to five years. Now the government has given no time frame for it.

The government also agreed to release all the strikers who had been arrested over the past few days and withdraw all cases against them as well as to reinstate those employees who had been dismissed for refusing to report to work.

In a related move, it also stopped all further recruitment of new staff to replace the sacked employees.

EARLIER REPORT:
UP government softens stand on power strike, resumes talks

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