Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 9: PDD employees and workers unions went on mass protest leave for 24 hours since last evening after the talks with Principal Secretary PDD over their long pending demands remained inconclusive.
The protesting engineers and employees assembled at PDD Complex Gladni this morning and observed a dharna after tendering mass casual leaves on the issue of the alleged inordinate delay in the filling up of the vacant positions across the hierarchy of the department in all cadres.
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The protest was held under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association [JKEEGA] of the Power Development Department, led by its president Sachin Tickoo, and supported by all the major organizations of PDD employees in Jammu, namely Diploma Engineers Association, Provincial Power Employee’s Union, Lineman and Workers Union, Technical Employees Federation, JKNGEEA, PEEU & PDL/TDL, and other workers unions.
The protesting employees and workers alleged that the Government failed to fulfill commitments even after nearly two years, made under the legal framework of the agreement dated 21.12.2021 signed between representatives of the Government and the representatives of the Power employees after 4 days of confrontation in 2021.
While addressing the gathering, Sachin Tickoo accused the Government of delaying the promotions despite more than 750 vacancies in the hierarchy of engineering cadre and more than 4000 posts in Technical/clerical cadres, with one post of Managing Director, three posts of Executive Director, 05 Chief Engineers, 14 Superintending Engineers, 61 Executive Engineers, 132 Assistant Ex Engineers, 164 Assistant Engineers and around 350 Junior Engineers lying vacant. This has led to the situation where every other person is having minimum two or three charge in the corporations of PDD, he explained, adding that that promotion files of all cadres are languishing for months and have been tossed between the office of the Chief Secretary and the administrative department.
Tiickoo said that right from Chief Engineer to down the line up to Junior Engineer, multiple charges have been assigned thus practically affecting the delivery of the services to the end consumer.
Similar protest demonstrations were observed at all the district headquarters. PDD Engineers from the Kashmir Province, led by Peerzada Hidayatullah, General Secretary JKEEGA, observed mass protest casual leave and dharna at Bemina PDD complex Kashmir.
The protesting employees decided to observe 48 hour mass protest leave on 25th September 2023, in case the demands are not addressed by then.
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