Srinagar: The JK-wide strike by Power department employees on Sunday entered the second day, leaving people bereft in the harsh winter with long power outages and faults remaining unrepaired.
The crisis has deepened so much that Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ragav Langer has written to the Indian Army for assistance, as essential services have begun to suffer in absence of electricity.
Complaints galore across the valley were made on Sunday over unresolved power faults. In Srinagar’s Nowshera area, people came out on the streets. It was only after police intervention that the protest was called off. The area remains without electricity since Saturday afternoon.
“No one from the Power department came to restore power despite being asked repeatedly to do so,” a local said.
Similarly, there were complaints of power shutdown in Bemina. Power was snapped to the area on Saturday and since it was not restored leaving people in cold.
The department’s over 20,000 employees are on strike against the government’s privatisation plans. They had warned, among other things, that they will not restore electricity even at the Lieutenant Governor’s office and other VVIPs offices in case of any fault.
The call for boycott of work was issued from December 17 to 18, as per a statement issued to the media.
The employees’ body has asked the government to shelve the proposal of Joint Venture of JKPTCL with PGCIL, issue a white paper on non-fulfilment of the recommendations of the ‘Unbundling report’, create positions as mandated by the committee at Gazetted and Non-Gazetted levels, regularization of PDL’s/TDL’s, DPC of Non-Gazetted staff, regularization of all PDD Engineers, etc.
It has also asked for delinking their salary from Grant in Aid and release a regular budget for all PDD employees on deputation to different corporations.
The demands aside, the people continue to suffer in the chilly winter. Electricity is one of the main sources of heating to beat the cold. When it goes off, people have to use old methods to light up and warm their homes. Patients who are on oxygen support are at risk of their lives.
In Ratinipora area of Pulwama, the electricity was cut for more than 13 hours until the sarpanch of the warned in writing that he will not be responsible if there is any damage caused to power infrastructure in public anger. A local said that people reached out to the department’s higher-ups but they did not listen.
Majid Munshi, convener of the Jammu & Kashmir Power Engineers and Employees Coordination Committee (JKPEECC), did not respond to this newspaper’s request to answer questions. A senior official in the Power department told Kashmir Reader that the government has conceded most of the demands, but the employees are demanding it in writing from the Secretariat.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz