As many as 32 local employees of the Udupi Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL), which runs a coal-based thermal power plant at Yellur village, have urged the district administration to persuade the company management to increase their salaries here on Thursday.
They submitted a memorandum at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.
Dhanraj Kumar, an employee of UPCL, said the local people, who had lost their lands and houses due to land acquisition for the construction of the thermal plant in 2005, were given jobs in the company as per their qualifications. All these 32 employees were working in different posts at the UPCL and were drawing salaries between Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 6,500 per month.
But contract employees and those who joined “through influence” were getting three times higher salaries compared to the local employees. The management should increase the basic pay of the local workers, Mr. Kumar said.
