5K general category staff of KPTCL protest for promotions

Around 5,000 members of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) General Category Association staged a protest on Monday and submitted a memorandum to Energy Minister D K Shivakumar.

They marched from the Freedom Park to the Cauvery Bhavan, where they waited for nearly 45 minutes for the minister. They demanded that the Supreme Court orders of April 29, 2015, pertaining to the reservation in promotions, be implemented at the earliest.

Association president Shivaprakash T M said general category employees had been waiting for justice for the past 40 years. “We are not seeking to deprive other categories. The march is not against reservation either,” he said. He added that their demands were not limited to the employees of the KPTCL, but pertained to all the employees of the Energy Department.

The memorandum stated that the policy of reservation in promotion was introduced by the state government on April 27, 1978, and the KEB adopted also it. The policy was also applicable to the lowermost class-1 category posts.

Shivaprakash pointed out that the 1978 reservation policy was implemented only for promotions, not the consequential seniority.

In response, Shivakumar promised to take up the matter with the chief minister and place it before the cabinet. He said the situation was the same in the Energy Department. The government will have to take a decision in a manner that SC/ST staff are not affected.