The employees of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) have once again requested the State government to include them under the frontline workers category in the fight against COVID-19.
The various employees unions had earlier urged the State government to announce the Tangedco engineers and other maintenance staff under the frontline workers category during the first wave of COVID-19.
More than 150 electricity employees, including senior-level officers, have succumbed to COVID-19 in the second wave. As they provide round-the-clock power supply for hospitals, oxygen manufacturing industrial units and other places involved in COVID-19 prevention activities, the officials said they were disappointed that the State government, despite announcing them to be part of the essential staff category, had not treated them as frontline workers.
Office-bearers of the TNEB Engineers’ Union, in a petition submitted to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, provided details of the engineers and staff who succumbed in the pandemic’s second wave and wanted the Tangedco employees to be announced as frontline warriors.
S. Manoharan, president of the union, said nearly 20 staff of Tangedco, including a Chief Engineer, had died due to the pandemic in the city alone, with the Madurai region coming second with 15 deaths followed by the Coimbatore region with 10.
The government should also take steps to allot a minimum bed facility exclusively for electricity staff in the hotspots such as Chennai, Coimbatore, and Tiruchi, they demanded.
