BENGALURU: Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) Employees’ Union has announced that its members will go on an indefinite strike from March 16. This may hit the power supply across the state. The employees will only ensure uninterrupted power supply to pump water, hospitals and other emergency services and attend to complaints such as snapping of electricity cables, according to K Balaram, general secretary of the union.
Despite coming under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma), the union members have decided to go on a strike demanding that the government increase their salary and fill up 35,000 vacancies. “It has been a year since we gave a memorandum to the government. We sought a 40-per cent increase in wages. But after a series of negotiations with the KPTCL management, we agreed for a 22-per cent hike. But the Finance Department has not cleared the proposal,” according to R H Lakshmipathi, union president.
Balaram said of the 95,000 sanctioned posts, 35,000 are vacant. In other states, there are 10 employees for 1,000 consumers. But in Karnataka, the ratio is 1000:3. Because of this, the workload has increased and employees are unable to handle it.
The union gave a memorandum to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai sometime ago and he promised to look into it. But nothing has been done so far, the office-bearers said. Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary Kapil Mohan and KPTCL Managing Director Manjula were not available for comment.