Condemning the ‘anti-worker attitude and policies’ of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) Chairman and Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Bansal and the move to privatise the operations TANGEDCO, the employees struck work and staged a day-long dharna on Wednesday.
In the protest organised in front of the Office of Executive Engineer, TANGEDCO, at Thiyagaraja Nagar in Palayamkottai, large number of TANGEDCO employees affiliated to various trade unions participated.
The protestors said the CMD of TANGEDCO was “autocratically” transferring the engineers working in upcoming power generation projects at Uppur, Udangudi and Ennore which was causing undue delay in construction and the predetermined quality of the construction could not be ensured.
“As retired engineers of TANGEDCO were being hired again and sub-stations at Sankaraapuram and Samayanallur were being given to private firms for maintenance and operation for two years, this would deny employment opportunities and the privatisation move would also dash the engineers hopes of getting promotions,” they charged.
Power generation in Thoothukudi, North Chennai and Mettur thermal power plants was being stopped wantonly to create artificial shortfall in generation and steps were being taken to purchase power from private firms. “We suspect that it is the first step being taken towards privatising power generation,” the protestors said.
The delay in appointing Assistant Engineers in 63 section offices across Tamil Nadu had phenomenally increased the burden on others. The delay in filling-up 42,000 vacancies has increased the pressure on the existing workforce which would naturally affect the quality of work.
“Since the top-brass of TANGEDCO is not worried about the well-being of the public sector enterprise and the move to privatise the public sector undertaking will certainly blow a death knell in the near future, workers from various trade unions have joined hands to save it from certain strangulation,” the protestors said.
Trade union leaders S. Kasi Viswanathan of AITUC, R. Mohan of CITU, A. Dharman of Thozhilaalar Munnetra Sangam, S. Solomon of National Labourers’ Organisation, N. Muthiah of TNEB Employees Federation, P. Esakki Raj of AMMK Trade Union, former Union Minister Dhanushkodi Athithan and others spoke.