Amid major power breakdown due to the indefinite strike of thousands of Power Development Department employees in Jammu and Kashmir, the administration sought help from the Army to restore electricity in the region.
Over 20,000 employees, including engineers, have gone on an indefinite strike since Friday night against the government move to merge J&K Power Development Department into the Power Grid Corporation of India and the handing over of the assets to private companies.
The strike has resulted in a complete breakdown of electricity in several districts of the union territory (UT), including Jammu and Srinagar cities. The J&K administration has held several rounds of talks with the representatives of the protesting employees.
However, the talks have failed to yield any results forcing the administration to seek the help of the Army to restore the power supply in J&K.
A letter written by the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu reads, “It is to bring to your notice that due to strike by Electricity Department personnel in UT of J&K, essential services have been severely affected in the region.”
"We would hereby require the Indian army in restoring the essential services,” it reads.
As power employees, from all unions and associations, from linemen to senior engineers refused to carry out any repair works or rectify technical snags in the system, power outages in this chilling winter have created severe hardships to people.
Kashmir valley is already facing long power cuts during winters because of the huge gap between supply and demand. Srinagar recorded a bone-chilling minus 6 degrees Celsius last night with the Met Office predicting a further drop in minimum temperature and also snowfall this week.
Convenor, Jammu and Kashmir Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee, Munshi Majid Ali said they have called for an indefinite strike after the government failed to address our issues.
Sachin Tickoo, General Secretary of the Power Employee Union said it is the issue of their existence. “It’s the fight of the people we are fighting. We will be left with nothing if we lose the transmission sector. It’s the backbone of the power department,” he said.
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