Srinagar, Dec 19: As the ongoing strike by the employees of the J&K Power Development Department/Corporation employees is lingering on, there are reports of long power blackouts being received from many areas across Jammu & Kashmir.
Reports received by Ziraat Times suggest power blackouts are happening in both Kashmir and Jammu regions, with several parts experiencing outages due to major equipment faults.
Several areas of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed electricity outages as linemen to senior engineers began their indefinite strike on Saturday against the government’s privatisation move of the department and failure of the two-round talks. During night hours there was a blackout in nearly 50% of areas across J&K.
Pertinently, about 20,000 employees of the J&K Power Development Department/Corporation are on strike about the delays in the manner transformation of the erstwhile department has been carried through a corporatization process which the power employee union believe is akin to privatization. The unions are aghast at the new system of fund allocation for their salaries, the future of their jobs and the recent 50% stake takeover of J&K’s power grid infrastructure by the Power Grid Corporation of India.
The government, on the other hand, maintains that it is working on a process of structural reform of the power sector in J&K to minimize the large aggregate transmission & distribution as well as financial losses for Jammu & Kashmir.
Meanwhile, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has sought the intervention of the Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in the ongoing work boycott by the 21000 electricity employees and engineers of Jammu & Kashmir.
Earlier in the day, reports suggested that Divisional Commissioner Jammu invited employees of J&KPDD for talks at 3:00 pm today, in the Divisional Commissioner’s office. ADGP Jammu Zone, M.D. JPDCL & JPTCL were expected to participate in the talks.
AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta told Ziraat Times that  Jammu and Kashmir electricity employees and engineers are on indefinite work boycott to press for their four-point demands, including shelving a proposed joint  venture  between the Jammu and Kashmir Power Transmission Corporation Limited and the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, a white paper on non-fulfillment of the recommendations of the unbundling report and the failure to create positions as mandated by the committee at Gazetted and Non-Gazetted levels, regularisation of daily wagers, and regularisation of all Power  Development Department engineers.
Meanwhile, Shailendra Dubey  Chairman AIPEF reached Jammu on Saturday to support the All Power Employees and Engineers coordination committee said that instead of coming with a resolution of the issues, the Government today cited termination and dismissal, without any reasons.
National Coordination Committee of Electricity employees and Engineers( NCCOEEE ) held an emergency online meeting was held on Sunday and it has been decided that demonstrations will be held across the country from  20th to 22nd December to support  J&K Power Employees. The memorandum shall be mailed to Lt. Governor with copy to Home Minister and Union Power Minister
by all the constituents on 20th  December, a statement said.
