Telangana power employees threaten to go on strike if demands are not met

The Maha Dharna urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Energy Secretary Ronald Rose to take a initiative to solve the unresolved issues pertaining to BC and OC employees of power companies.

Hyderabad: A large number of power staff belonging to Backward Classes and Other Castes gathered at Vidyut Soudha on Wednesday on the call given by the Telangana Electricity Backward Classes and Other Castes Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) and staged a massive protest demanding the government to address the issues related to promotions.

The Maha Dharna urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Energy Secretary Ronald Rose to take a initiative to solve the unresolved issues pertaining to BC and OC employees of power companies. The JAC warned that if their demands were not met, the BC and OC employees working in power companies would not hesitate to go on strike.

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The JAC demanded the government to hold an inquiry with a sitting Judge of the High Court on the propriety of the hasty move taken by the TG Power Utilities for granting ad hoc and conditional promotions to thousands of employees, without undertaking the exercise of review of promotions hitherto granted to the employees. It also wanted the government to fix Inter-Se-Seniority for promotions to next higher cadres, inrespect of all Direct Recruits of all Services, as per the Merit/Rank/Marks obtained by them in the selection process.

The JAC members asked the power utilities management to publish the final seniority lists in respect of the employees from the cadre of Junior Line Men/equivalent cadre to that of Chief Engineer/equivalent cadre in various categories/services in the TG TRANSCO, GENCO, SPDCL and NPDCL.

Speaking on the occasion, JAC chairman K Kumar Swamy said BC and OC employees from several departments, including TRANSCO, GENCO, SPDCL, and NPDCL, have been waiting for their promotions for over two years and despite multiple requests, the management had not taken any concrete action to resolve their concerns.

Even though the power utilities management and the State government were asked to do speedy justice to more than 35,000 BC and OC employees working in power companies, justice was not done, he said, adding that even though the JAC told the management and the government that they were going to hold Maha Dharna, the employers gave promotions to approximately 3830 employees with new conditions and started a new policy.