Power employees call off strike as J&K govt agrees to all demands

JAMMU: After four-day disruption in power supply across J&K due to the power development department (PDD) employees’ strike against the proposed privatisation of electricity in the Union Territory, the administration on Tuesday accepted the demands of over 20,000 striking PDD staff.
With the signing of the agreement between the top officials and power staff, the indefinite strike was called off and the staff began to restore power in the state with immediate effect. Most of the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir had been facing power breakdown amid harsh winter conditions since the strike bagn on Friday, and the Army had been called to help restore essential services.
The power staff had been on strike opposing the merger of Jammu and Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation Limited (JKPTC) with the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCI).
An official team led by divisional commissioner Raghav Langar and ADGP Mukesh Singh of Jammu held a fresh round of talks late Monday night with the PDD employees’ association led by its general secretary S Tickoo and gave them a written assurance of accepting their demands, the union leaders said.
Jammu University had to postponed its offline and online examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate students on Tuesday in view of the strike.
The PDD employees had held anti-government protests in Srinagar and Jammu demanding in writing from the Lieutenant Governor that the administration has shelved the proposal of merger.