-Galla S Kiran Kumar,Bureau Chief Telagana (Andhra Pradesh)
Vidyutsaudha in Hyderabad was rocked on Friday with the Mahadharna of the electricity workers. The main road of Khairatabad was completely blocked for two hours as thousands of people gathered for a Mahadharna by Telangana Vidyut Udyog Sanghas Aikya Karyacharana Samithi (ICASA) and Employees Union-H82 simultaneously calling for a Mahadharna, demanding a solution to many issues including PRC.
The employees besieged the power headquarters for PRC
for over two hours and thousands of artisans were on the road
simultaneously
demanding the immediate declaration of PRC pending since last April.
Today, Hyderabad, Khairatabad, Newstoday: With the Mahadharna of electricity workers, the power plant in Hyderabad shook on Friday. The main road of Khairatabad was completely blocked for two hours as thousands of people gathered for a Mahadharna by Telangana Vidyut Udyog Sanghas Aikya Karyacharana Samithi (ICASA) and Employees Union-H82 simultaneously calling for a Mahadharna, demanding a solution to many issues including PRC. The entire premises of Vidyut Soudha building was filled with employees who arrived in large numbers at 11 am. In addition, thousands of people stood on the main road displaying placards. After that thousands of temporary employees (artisans) also stood on the road. As the road from Khairatabad towards Ameerpet is the most important one, there has been a serious problem for the traffic. Police diverted the vehicles from Khairatabad Circle towards Raj Bhavan. The police had to make many efforts to send the vehicles that had joined the people who were already on the dharna. While the employees who had gathered on the road for about a hundred meters were being avoided on one side, on the other hand, others were standing across the vehicles shouting slogans and displaying placards. It is noteworthy that despite thousands of people joining the road and disrupting the traffic, the police maintained restraint for almost two hours.
Pay revision should be announced
The old wage agreement of Telangana Vidyut Samsala employees has expired on 31 March 2022. The main demand of the trade unions is to announce a new wage revision (PRC) from April 1. From the meeting organized at Vidyut Soudha premises on Friday, ICASA Chairman G. Saibabu, Convener Ratnakar, Co-Chairman Sridhar and Co-Convenor BC Reddy said that after giving a notice to the Sansala owners to revise the salary immediately, they said that they are holding a Mahadharna after the negotiations with Minister Jagadish Reddy did not reach a conclusion. During the negotiations, the protest was postponed four times as per the request made by the owners. The owners were told in advance that the ‘Chalo Vidyut Soudha’ program will be organized under the auspices of ICASA comprising 24 associations and preparatory meetings were held in Hyderabad on 18th, Warangal on 20th and Palvanchal on 21st of this month. However, as there was no response from the management, this Mahadharna was announced. Also, they demanded to implement the old pension system for the employees appointed from 1999 to 2004 and solve the problems of the artisans immediately. They said that the artisans are living on very good wages, their personal pay should be added to basic, they should be given adequate fitness and medical facilities should be provided to them like permanent employees. They announced the demands to implement cashless unlimited medical policy, to provide Rs. crore life insurance, to provide post-retirement medical facilities to EPF employees, to pay retirement gratuity of Rs.16 lakhs to GPF employees and Rs.20 lakhs to EPF employees, to give HRA to state government employees. They warned that the next protest program would intensify if the management did not respond.
