Power cuts: Blame it to staff who are purposely disrupting supply

Are Delhiites suffering power cuts due to faulty cables, failure of transformers or broken poles? The answer is no. They are suffering power cuts as contractual employees of the two BSES discoms, who are on strike, have resorted to sabotage by shutting off supply at substations. The Arvind Kejriwal government is likely to invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) if the crisis grows.

The sabotage, coming just a day after Delhi government announced a slew of measures to tackle power cuts, affected supply across south, central and west Delhi, hitting 15 of the 20 divisions under BSES, as per a Times of India report.

The contractual workers are presently on strike and are demanding regular jobs. They later agreed to hold their 'operations' for two days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reached out to the union.

The problem started from Wednesday evening, when contractual workers under the Delhi vidyut board employees union started shutting off power supply in Masjid Mod, CR Park, New Friends Colony, Greater Kailash I and II, Sarita Vihar, South Extension, Kalkaji, Nehru Place and surrounding areas.

The workers also reportedly damaged substations in BRPL's west Delhi areas of Hari Nagar, Paschim Vihar, Tilak Nagar and Karol Bagh.

The union later said it was suspending the sabotage action temporarily. "All other services would continue to remain suspended. Only power has been restored. But this is also for just two days. If our demands are not met, we will go back to a full blackout of Delhi," warned union general secretary D C Kapil.

Delhi Police said they also received calls from officers in-charge of substations in many areas about workers protesting outside their offices and forcing them to shut down. Police force was sent to several such locations.

The union employees' agitation started earlier this week, but intensified from Wednesday evening. Discoms BRPL and BYPL then sent SOS messages to the government, LG office and asked for police intervention to stop the attacks on their substations.

Meanwhile, the government is monitoring the situation closely. TOI learnt that the power department has been put on alert and is studying the provisions of ESMA in the eventuality that the crisis worsens.

A BSES spokesperson said disciplinary action had been taken against a few employees for indiscipline and violating service standards. "Unfortunately, in reaction, a few of the disgruntled contractual employees resorted to illegal disruption of work at certain places in south and west Delhi," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the striking employees justified their strike. Union general secretary Kapil said: "There are 30,000 contractual employees with the three discoms. BSES has about 20,000. Most of them have been working for 10 years or so without being made permanent."

He further said these workers were being shunted from one company to another every four to five months. "Only 50% of their salary is paid while the remaining is handed out to officers. The affected employees include all levels of workers including labourers, linesmen, bill distributors, meter readers, meter installers, engineers, payment recovery personnel and even stenographers," he said.

(Image: Reuters)