J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday said 60% of electricity supply had been restored in the Union Territory (UT) and promised to restore 100% supply by Tuesday, as protests by around 20,000 employees of the Power Development Department continued for the third day and affected university examinations and the tourism sector.
“I understand your pain caused by the disruption in electricity supply. Many generations of J&K have spent their life dreaming about getting an uninterrupted 24 hours supply of electricity. We have taken the bold initiative of reforms in the power sector to realize that dream,” Mr. Sinha said.
He accused the previous regimes of not intending “to better the system to bring qualitative change in people's lives”. The L-G said personnel from the REC, the NTPC and the NHPC, and officers from the Army Engineering Corps, have joined to restore the electricity in the wake of protests.
Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee (PEECC) held demonstrations in J&K and stayed away from work protesting against the proposed merger of PDD with Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) in the Union Territory.
The government has appealed to employees to call off the strike and offered to put on hold its privatisation plan, but employees are insisting on a written assurance. The protesting employees pledged to continue with the protests till their demands are met. The J&K officials have failed to reach any settlement with the protesting employees till Monday evening.
Regional parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, have criticised the government and supported the employees in their demands.
“The proposed move to sell the transmission system is not a reform but another step in looting the state resources and block jobs for locals. The so-called reservation in recruitment is reduced to a cruel joke,” PDP leader Naeem Akhtar said.
Meanwhile, several under-graduate and post-graduate examinations were cancelled by the Jammu varsity in the face of power crisis. The crisis has hit both the capitals of Jammu and Srinagar, besides far off villages and towns in the UT, with people left in darkness as temperatures plunged amid a cold wave.
J&K Hoteliers Club chairman Mushtaq Chaya, also expressed concern over the erratic power supply. “Hotels need uninterrupted power supply to provide adequate heating system to the guests. Without electricity, the visitors will not be able to stay in the hotels and could hamper tourism industry badly,” he said.
Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq accused the J&K authorities of following “a policy of seizure of natural resources of J&K”.
“It's unfortunate that J&K, which is rich in water and other natural resources, has not been able to solve the problem of electricity even after seven decades and the consequences are borne by the Kashmiris in winters and the people of Chenab and Jammu in summers. The authorities should accept the demand of the striking employees,” the Mirwaiz said.
