Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU/ Srinagar, Aug 17: The Graduate Electrical engineers of the State observed mass casual leave and held sit in dharna at PDD Complex Narwal, Jammu and Bemina Complex at Srinagar besides Leh Ladakh, in response to the call given by Jammu & Kashmir Electrical Graduate Engineers Association (JKEEGA) today.
The sit in dharna was attended by Power engineers, including Development Commissioner Power (DCP) J&K , Secy Technical J&K and all other cadres from Chief Engineers to Junior Engineers cadre across the State.
Airing their views, the speakers regretted that the DCP,CE’s, SE’s, XEN’s are still working in pay and grade of maximum of AEE and are superannuating in that scale only. The assurances given by Government to implement the Running Pay Grade (Assured Career Progression Scheme) has turned to be hollow promises resulting into utter mess.
They said the J&K Government has transformed the Power Development Department into as in-charge/stop-gap and casual entity. The Graduate Power engineers voice ferociously demanded the filling up of vacancies i.e all the cadres by way of promotions and showed their dismay that at present nearly 40 posts of Executive Engineer, more than 100 posts of Assistant Executive Engineer and nearly 150 post of Assistant Engineers are lying vacant in the department. More than 20 division of the state are working without executive engineers with additional charge to the Superintending Engineers and 100 % efficiency is expected by the government.
It will be pertinent to mention here that a similar one day token strike was held on March 20, 2017 across J&K, but the Government despite assurances at that time failed to honour its commitments. The Graduate Engineers further agitated on the working conditions of Electrical engineers, where a Junior Engineer is getting field travel allowance of Rs 30 per month only, which in itself speaks volumes.
The Graduate engineers of the state extended gratitude to Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) for writing to Chief Minister J&K and DyCM/ Minister for Power J&K besides offering full support for their cause.
At Srinagar, president JKEEGA Pirzada Hidayatullah was leading the strike/ protest dharna.
In a unanimous resolution adopted in all the five regions of the state, it was decided that if the demands are not met immediately, Electrical engineers working in PDD/JKSPDC as token strike shall resort to suspend power supply in the entire State for three hours from 10:00 AM to 1:00PM on August 28, 2017.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
