Jagjit Singh
Mukerian, 9 December
Protests were held in PowerCom Mandal Mukerian and Datarpur sub-mandal against the central government disbanding the Chandigarh Electricity Department and UT Electricity Board and handing it over to a private company. The protest in Mukerian was led by the Federation’s Divisional President Jagdish Singh Gunnopur, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh Divisional President Surjit Kumar, Council of Junior Engineers Divisional President Yadvinder Singh and Pensioners Welfare Federation Mukerian Divisional President Balwinder Singh Pankhuh. Circle president of the federation Tarlok Singh and state president of BMS Sucha Singh also participated in the rally. A rally was held in Datarpur by Employees Federation (Pahlwan Group) and TSU under the chairmanship of President Lal Chand JE and Kamal Kishore JE. On this occasion, Federation Vice President Pawan Kumar Sharma, Secretary Vinod Kumar, SDC Tajinder Singh, Cashier Meenakshi Thakur, Neelam Kumari, Amit Kumar, Varinder Kumar UDC, Samsher Singh and a large number of employees were present.
Talwara (Deepak Talwara): Bhakra Beas Employees Union (ATK and AFI) held a public meeting here. Union Secretary Shiv Kumar presided over the meeting. He said that the Chandigarh administration is going to give the profit-making Chandigarh Electricity Department into private hands, against which the employees and consumers are mobilizing and agitating. Sathi Shiv Kumar accused the central government of being pro-corporate. The union leader said that the central government is preparing to sell the department to benefit the private company. ATK and AFI are jointly opposing the central government’s decision. On this occasion, Finance Secretary Pritam Chand, Ashok Kumar and Som Raj advised the government to reconsider the decision and warned of a sharp struggle.