Himachal Pradesh: Employees and pensioners of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEBL) today staged protests outside power offices across the state. They demanded withdrawal of the decision to abolish 51 posts of engineers and remove 81 drivers appointed on outsourced basis. Their other major demands include restoration of old pension scheme in the board, not tampering with the existing structure of the board and listening to the board employees before implementing the measures suggested by the cabinet sub-committee. The government has formed a committee to reform the board. “Protests were held at 60 different places in the state,” said H L Verma, secretary of the Joint Front of HPSEBL employees and engineers.
The power employees have postponed their agitation for 15 days, dropping their plan to launch a bigger agitation before Diwali in case the government does not invite them for talks. “If the government does not resolve our issues in this period, our agitation will move to a ‘tool down, pen down’ phase,” said Lokesh Thakur, president of the Joint Front. Speaking to the media after the protest, Verma said it seems the government is deliberately trying to weaken the board’s structure and gradually hand it over to private hands. “If the board is split even more, it will not only affect the service conditions of employees and pensioners, but consumers will also suffer as they will have to pay higher tariffs,” he said. The protesters further said the board had suffered a lot in the absence of a regular managing director for over a year until a few months ago. “Not only was the OPS not reinstated in the board, but the board’s financial condition also deteriorated during this period. The board suffered so much that it was ranked 50th among the discoms in the country,” Verma said.
