Srinagar, Dec 19 (KNS): Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum on Sunday extended its support to the employees of power development department in Jammu and Kashmir who have gone on indefinite pen-down against privatisation of grid stations.
In a statement, issued to Kashmir News Service (KNS), chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum, Abdul Qayoom Wani said that the employees, under the banner of Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee (PEECC) J&K were genuine in demanding white paper on non-creations and regularisation of engineers and PDL, TDL staff and casual labours, besides opposing any move by government to privatize this vital sector.
“The Power Development Department was converted into a Corporation and the employees were assured release of timely wages, promotions, and regularization of daily wagers. However, it did not happen and now the government was trying to privatize the grid stations,” Wani said.
Wani further said that the government did not fulfill the promises made to the employees which is sheer injustice with them. "If the government moves ahead with any plan of privatization, not only the power employees, but consumers too will suffer badly."
He said that the decision to privatize power sector will hit consumers and traders hard as private players will increase tariff as per their own choice and Jammu and Kashmir is a poor state and the consumers will not be able to afford the increased tariff.
He said that at the time of converting the PDD into power distribution companies, the government had claimed the decision was taken for the improvement of the power sector. "But now they are going for privatization which is only being done to hand over the assets to big companies free of cost. Privatization of PDD was not at all doing good to the economy of Jammu and Kashmir but to worsen the livelihood of thousands of employees."
Meanwhile, he also demanded rollback of orders and plans for privatization of PDD and demanded regularization of daily wagers and need-based employees. (KNS)