CM,employees forum hold meeting,reach consensus The Punjab State Electricity Board employees called off the strike on the second day on Friday,after the state government agreed to accept some of their demands. While the protest was peaceful in most of the places,around 200 farmers were arrested in Tarn Taran for trying to disrupt traffic. Deputy Commissioner of Tarn Taran Khushi Ram said they feared the law and order situation may go out of hand and had to place the farmers under arrest. Among those arrested was Rassal Singh Asal,state president of Border Area Sangarsh Committee. A group of farmers also held a protest at Rajasansi and raised slogans against the unbundling. Protest were also held at Nangal-Una road,Nurpur Bedi in Ropar,Gill Kalan and Rampura road in Bathinda,Jagroan bus stand,Mansa-Sunam road,Sultanpur road in Goindwal sahib. According to information available with the Punjab Police headquarters,the strike was mainly peaceful. A few protestors were arrested and later released at few places. Six companies of the CRPF were sent back by the state and the six companies of the BSF will be sent back on Saturday. Talking with The Indian Express,Manjit Singh Chahal,spokesman of the Joint Forum of PSEB Employees,said,After a three-hour meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal a consensus was reached on three issues. Firstly,the government will not privatise either of the two companies formed after the unbundling. Secondly,all the 65,000 employees of the PSEB will continue with their jobs and there will be no change in the salaries,pension,gratuity and other financial benefits. We will also sign an agreement with the management of both the companies on these issues so that they do not back out later. The third issue is of the wage committee within the board. Many demands of the employees had been pending. It was decided to solve all the issues of the employees within a month by the newly formed companies, he added. We have decided not to extend the strike and go back to work,Chahal said. He also thanked the farmers for their support. The CM said there will be no privatisation of the board. A four-member committee has also been formed to sort out the issues of the employees within a month,he added. The farmers unions,however,continue to protest. Jamhuri Kisan Union head Rattan Singh Randhawa and Kisan Sangarsh Committee chief Satnam Singh Pannu said the state government will not be able to snub their protests by resorting to force. We will continue protests and are in a process to chalk out a common program after April 27, said Randhawa. (With inputs from Amritsar,Jalandhar and Ludhiana) PSEB unbundling Powercom,Transco now registered companies PATIALA: The Punjab government,after taking the historic decision to restructure the Punjab State Electricity Board,into two companies - Transco and Powercom,got both the companies registered for business on Friday. The government also notified the transfer scheme and gave clean balance sheets to the two companies. Strike costs board Rs 20 cr Though the people enjoyed uninterrupted power for the last two days because of the strike by the technical and non-technical staff,it was the PSEB which had to bear the cost of Rs 20 crore. Chief Engineer System,Operation,Control and Member Transmission,V K Gupta said power was purchased as well as overdrawn from the Central sector and from other grids in the last two days. With the early onset of summers,the demand for electricity in Punjab has increased by 12 per cent as compared to last year. The board plans to purchase power worth Rs 1,100 crore during this year. It purchased maximum power of 172 lakh units on March 16,worth Rs 12 crore,followed by 144.7 lakh units on March 15 for Rs 9.78 crore. Earlier,it spent Rs 45 crore to purchase 888 lakh units of power at an average rate of Rs 5.08 per unit,said sources.
