The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) employees, engineers and pensioners has urged the board management not to deploy Himachal-based electricity personnel in Haryana during the three-day strike announced by power employees there from October 22nd to 24th.
In a representation addressed to the HPSEBL Chairman, the committee expressed solidarity with Haryana’s electricity employees and engineers, asking the Himachal Pradesh Government and board management to refrain from sending any employee, engineer or technical staff member to Haryana to maintain power supply during the proposed agitation.
The Haryana employees’ strike has been called in protest against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant a 25-year parallel electricity distribution licence to Eleven Power Private Limited for Gurugram and Nuh.
The employees’ organisations have opposed the move, alleging that it could lead to indirect privatisation of the power sector.
The Himachal committee said deploying personnel from neighbouring states during the strike could undermine the collective efforts of the protesting employees and adversely affect the spirit of unity, brotherhood and mutual cooperation among electricity workers across states.
It maintained that employees’ grievances should be addressed through dialogue, constructive negotiations and fair decisions rather than measures that could weaken their collective movement.
The JAC has appealed to HPSEBL management to issue clear directions that no employee or engineer from Himachal Pradesh should be sent to Haryana to operate the electricity system during the strike.
The representation, signed by JAC convener Er Lokesh Thakur and co-convener Hira Lal Verma, has also been marked to the Haryana Chief Minister and the state’s Power Minister for information and necessary intervention.
The development brings the focus to Himachal Pradesh’s position amid the labour dispute in its neighbouring state, with the HPSEBL employees’ body making its solidarity with Haryana’s power workforce explicit.
Whether the board management will accept the request remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Punjab government employees went on mass casual leave on Wednesday and Thursday, 21st October and 22nd October, to protest against the state government’s failure to resolve their long pending demands.
The agitation, led by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of employees’ unions and other employee and pensioner organisations, disrupted government functioning across the state, while an indefinite strike by transport workers affected public bus services.
The protesters are demanding the restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), release of pending dearness allowance (DA) instalments and arrears, resolution of pay anomalies, regularisation of contractual and outsourced workers, and implementation of other long-standing service-related demands.
According to employee representatives, more than three lakh government employees participated in the mass leave programme last Wednesday.
The agitation involved teachers, employees from various government departments and contractual workers of Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS and the Punjab Road Transport Corporation (PRTC).
The strike affected work in government offices, directorates, district administrative complexes and tehsil offices.
Employee organisations also called for demonstrations across Punjab, with major rallies planned outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh and near PUDA Bhawan in Mohali.
District-level protests were organised outside Deputy Commissioners’ offices.
Public transport services were also disrupted after around 7,500 transport employees joined the agitation, keeping nearly 2,700 buses off the roads, according to information provided by the unions.
The Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS and PRTC Contract Workers’ Union subsequently extended its statewide strike indefinitely, stating that the protest would continue until concrete decisions were taken on their demands.
A meeting between employee representatives and Chief Secretary KAP Sinha, which began at 4pm last Wednesday, failed to resolve the deadlock.
The discussions followed the state government’s release of minutes from an earlier meeting with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, as demanded by the unions.
A 39-member delegation of employees and pensioners met government officials, but representatives said they received no clear assurances on several key demands.
The nearly two-hour meeting remained inconclusive, prompting the unions to continue their two-day mass casual leave programme last Thursday.
Sukhchain Singh Khaira, coordinator of the Joint Action Committee leading the agitation, said government offices, including directorates, had been affected by the employees’ absence.
Elsewhere, around 70 women sanitation workers employed at Surat’s prominent Bhagwan Mahavir University have begun a sit-in protest on the university campus, demanding payment of salaries pending for the past three months.
The private contractor and the administration shirked responsibility according to trade union representatives, when the contractor was contacted about the outstanding salaries, he claimed that the university had not provided the funds or payment.
On the other hand, the university’s administration department also acknowledged that the staff had not been paid for the past three months and directly washed its hands of responsibility.
The impoverished women employees who keep the campus clean and safe have been left struggling to obtain the money they are rightfully owed because of this uncooperative attitude.
Migrant families face a financial crisis and are demanding immediate payments.
Most of the women taking part in the protest come from migrant families and live in rented homes in Surat, earning daily wages to buy groceries.
With their wages withheld for the past three months, managing their households, their children’s education and everyday needs has become extremely difficult.
The labour union has made a strong representation to the university’s trustees and administrators, demanding that the outstanding wages of all 70 women employees be paid immediately in view of the Diwali festival.
- Delhi Police detained several protesters on Friday as a demonstration against the removal of over 130 million Indians from the electoral roll marched to the Election Commission (EC) in the centre of the city.
The protest was organised by the Coordination Committee of People against SIR (the law which was brought in to restrict voter registration) and was joined by thousands of students, working class youth and small farmers.
The All India Students Association (AISA) said in a statement: ‘We won’t let go of our right to vote and the right to protest to protect it.
AISA said: ‘The is supposed to be a democracy and we must make sure that we won’t be stopped from taking part in elections.’
The protest in Delhi is part of 88 demonstrations that will be taking place across India in the next weeks with millions of people expected to take part in the demonstrations.