A large number of electricity employees of the APGenco, APTransco and Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL) staged a demonstration at the SPDCL Superintending Engineer’s office near PWG Grounds here on Sunday, demanding pay revision and other benefits.
They sought that the long-pending demand for 27.5 per cent fitment and special increments in addition to higher salaries be conceded immediately and warned that they would, otherwise, stop power supply across the Coastal and Rayalaseema districts from Monday.
Pending demandsSpeaking to the media, employees’ union leaders M. Satyanandam, Venkateswara Rao and others said that the authorities had been turning a cold shoulder to their demands on the pretext that the government was busy with bifurcation of the State. Employees in Telangana and Seemandhra were to receive revised salaries from April 1, 2014 but there had been no response from the government which cited different excuses for the delay in its implementation, they alleged.
Blackout in the offing?As a consequence, they said, around 70,000 employees from the engineering cadre to accounts and field staff were prepared to stall generation of around 3,600 MW and distribution of 9,600 MW, if the government did not take necessary action on the issue by Sunday evening. If this happened, three States (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) would plunge into darkness.
Since it is a policy decision to be taken in the combined State, the government should not drag the issue further , the employees warned. Employees of the Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station at Ibrahimpatnam also staged protests, demanding pay revision and vowed to intensify agitation. .
