The State Government has taken a grave note of the Work to Rule agitation of the employees of the State power corporations and it is planning to take tough measures to ensure that general public remains unaffected by the agitation.
Under the Work to Rule agitation, the employees of the power corporations switch off their mobile phones after 5 pm and switch them on at 10 am next morning.
Alarmed by the situation, the administration is contemplating enforcement of the provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on the agitating employees.
The Secretary power, Radhika Jha said that the administration is trying its best to ensure that the pay matrix issue of the employees is solved. She said that a meeting of the representatives of the employee with the Chief Secretary was suggested by her but it was rejected by employees. She said that the Managing Director (MDs) of the power corporations have been directed to implement provisions of VII pay commission. Jha made it clear that the services would not be allowed to suffer at any cost. It is learnt that the State finance department is not prepared to amend the pay matrix for the employees of power corporations as it would create operational and other difficulties.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat while addressing a public meeting in Kotdwar on Monday had said that the State Government would not allow the State to become a strike- State.
He hinted that tough action would be initiated against employees if people suffer from their agitation.
Meanwhile, the Joint forum of different power associations has said that the employees would not get bogged down by the pressure tactics adopted by the Government and threatened that all employees of Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL), Uttarakhand Jal Vidhyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL) and Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (PTCUL) would immediately go into a strike if any of the employee is harassed.
A combined meeting of all four associations, the Uttaranchal Power Engineers Association, Power Junior Engineer Association, Urja Officers Supervisors and Staff association and Uttarakhand Urja Kamgar Sangathan was organized at Rudrapur on Tuesday. In the meeting the members charged the government for not keeping its promise to release amended orders on Pay Matrix and ACP. On October 17, the State Government had given an assurance regarding these issues after which the associations decided to break their agitation.
The spokesperson of the joint forum of the power department association, D C Gurunani said that the state Finance Minister Prakash Pant had assured that all pay disparities would be solved within one month but no order has been released till date.
Charging the Government for adopting double standards Gurunani said that on one hand the state government is paying higher grade pay to the employees of secretariat services but on other hand it is reducing the grade pay of the employees of power corporations.
He said that the employees of the power corporations have never taken the extreme step of strike after the state was created but now the government is pushing them to brink.