A joint front of power sector unions staged a major protest at Kumar House Shimla
On the call of the Shimla March of Joint Front of Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Employees and Engineers, a protest was held at Kumar House here today.
Braving bone-biting cold wave thousands of state electricity board employees, engineers, and pensioners from across the state attended the demonstration.
On this occasion, the rally was addressed by Joint Front President E. Lokesh Thakur, Employees Union President Kameshwar Sharma, Chandra Singh Mandyal of Pensioners Form, Laxman Kapta, Sunil Grover, Kuldeep Kharwada of Technical Union and strongly advocated for the old pension and permanent arrangement.
Through the protest, the leaders of the Front expressed concern over the deteriorating financial condition of the Electricity Board, and its reasons were also discussed.
A proposal was put forward by the Front among the employees and engineers from all over the state that the electricity employees and engineers would not take free electricity, which was strongly welcomed by all employees.
The Front believes that there is a class in the state which needs this electricity subsidy, it could be given to them in a better way, but there is a very large class that also includes electricity employees who do not need free electricity. .
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister called the Joint Front for talks on these issues on January 18, 2024, after which instead of marching towards the Secretariat, the Front marched towards Chauda Maidan in the form of a rally and postponed its demonstration there till the next meeting.
The Joint Front expressed hope that the government will understand the seriousness of the matter and the results of this meeting will be positive.
He also said that if the old pension is not restored or a permanent Managing Director is not found, then the Joint Front movement would be extended further.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s government landed to power in 2022 on the popular promise of the Old Pension Scheme however employees belonging to the corporate sector including 4000 employees and 35000 retired employees are waiting to implement the OPS.
Ensuing the Lok Sabha election may be detrimental to the Congress party if cannot resolve the employee unrest as four Lok Sabha seats are very important for the India alliance or Congress to gain power after ten years, employees leader said.
