The HC had first taken cognisance of the matter on Tuesday and, later on Wednesday, issued a notice to union as blackout brought Chandigarh to its knees. Archive The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday pulled up the Chandigarh administration for bending before the striking UT Powermen Union in its attempt to put an end to the city’s worst ever electricity crisis. The HC had first taken cognisance of the matter on Tuesday and, later on Wednesday, had issued a notice to union as blackout triggered by the powermen’s strike brought Chandigarh to its knees.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, the division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli was told by the Amicus Curiae in the matter, Senior Advocate Chetan Mittal, that the copy of the minutes of the meeting between the administration and the union showed that that the deputy commissioner assured that the engineering department would not issue LoI (Letter of Intent) to the selected private agency till next date of hearing — March 10 before the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Mittal submitted that “the administration had come under pressure from the Union”.
The bench held that UT officials were taking the credit, but they should also take responsibility, as they appeared to have succumbed to the pressure of the union. The HC also observed that it seemed that the UT was not reporting the incidents of damage to electricity supply infrastructure and was trying to save the employees.
As per the minutes of meeting between union and UT administration held on February 23, which were placed before the HC on Thursday, the union had requested that sympathetic view should be taken regarding employees joining their duty that day itself. The minutes placed before the HC mentioned: “The deputy commissioner assured that reasonable sympathetic view will be taken regarding such employees, who had joined their duty today or will immediately join from 4 pm. Appropriate legal action will be taken against those employees who will still be absent from duty.” The order copy was not out till the time of filing this report.
UT Admin plans punitive action against striking powermen
Meanwhile, a day after the city reeled under power outages that lasted for over 36 hours in some parts, the Chandigarh Administration on Thursday decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings against regular employees of the electricity department who were involved in the disruption of supply. Further action under ESMA will also be taken against them, officials in the administration said.
The administration has also decided that the services of outsourced employees, who were involved in the disruption of power supply and damaging the electrical systems, will also be terminated for defying orders of the administration.
In addition, an FIR has also been registered against such employees for violating the ESMA act. The process to identify the staff involved in the disruption of the power supply has already been initiated by the police through CCTV footage and other evidence. The DGP UT has also been requested to fast-track the investigation.
To find out the extent of damage caused to the electrical systems and other details, a committee of independent experts has been constituted, who have been asked to submit their report in 15 days.
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