Chandigarh Power Dept Workers End Strike; Power Supply Restored in Most Areas

A strike against privatisation led to blackouts in several parts and severely affected hospitals and schools.

Power outage in Chandigarh

(Photo: The Quint)

Thousands of Electricity Department employees in Chandigarh withdrew their strike on Wednesday evening, 23 February, ANI reported. Power supply was restored in most of the areas of Chandigarh, as per the administration of the Union Territory.

"Power department employees have rejoined their duties. Power supply has been restored in most of the areas. The administration has been in touch with the employees over their various issues," Dharam Pal, Adviser to UT Administrator, was quoted as saying by ANI.

The 72-hour strike by the employees began on Monday night, 21 February, over the privatisation of the electricity department, which they believe would drive up power tariffs.

Scores of homes and industries in Chandigarh faced a power outage following the strike.

The strike was led under the banner of the 'UT Powermen Union'.

Power department employees on strike in Chandigarh.

(Photo: Twitter/ Ravneet Singh Brar)

While the elective surgeries were postponed across hospitals in the city, several parts faced a shortage of water supply. Online classes and coaching institutes were also severely affected. Several parts of the city saw chaos on roads as traffic lights in many places ceased to function.

"Most of the Industrial Area Phase I and II witnessed blackouts since Monday night. Officers are showing helplessness in restoring power. Hope they arrive at some solution for the next two days," Chamber of Chandigarh Industries President Naveen Manglani told IANS on Tuesday.

"Children can't take online classes as phones are discharged," Anita, a homemaker, told ANI. She added that she was unable to even cook dinner, and that elders in her house were facing problems at night.

Another homemaker, Kamala Devi, said "A lot of time has passed without electricity," adding, "No one is coming to help us, otherwise political parties come door-to-door during elections," reported ANI.

Hospitals Affected, Vaccines Shifted

Elective surgeries at the Government Medical College Hospital in Sector 32 (GMCH 32) were also postponed.

"Vaccines from many health and wellness centres had to be shifted, as we did not want to take any risk of them getting spoilt. We had to postpone all elective surgeries and our main focus was the emergency and labour room," Dr Suman Singh, Director, Health Services, told The Indian Express.

Singh told PTI that though there were backup plans and generators in place for situations like these, the hospitals cannot put 100 percent load on the generators.

'No Response on Helpline Numbers'

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, a resident of Sector 15-C told The Quint that since most homes did not have backup inverters that last more than 12 hours, there was a complete blackout in several areas by Tuesday evening.

"The helpline numbers provided by the administration were either unreachable or constantly busy. There was no one to help in case of an emergency," she said.

"People were struggling to charge their phones, get any work done, and at-home medical patients were struggling without their monitoring devices," she added.

(Read the complete account of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti on The Quint's 'My Report'.)

How the Govt is Dealing With the Strike

While talks of the employees with Union Territory Advisor Dharam Pal proved to be futile, the Chandigarh administration on Tuesday enforced the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), banning strikes by the electricity department for six months.

The invoking of ESMA would allow the administration to force the employees to return to work and file FIRs in case of refusal.

Chandigarh's power demand took a plunge from the daily average of 260MW to 90MW at 6pm on Tuesday, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The Army’s Military Engineer Services (MES) was summoned late Tuesday night.

The Joint Action Committee and Coordination Committee also conducted a meeting and said that they were against the implementation of the ESMA, ANI reported.

The High Court Order

In view of the power crisis, the high court on Tuesday summoned the chief engineer of Chandigarh to court on Wednesday, 23 February, to "apprise the court about the measures being taken to alleviate the crisis".

"The matter may be placed before the Chief Justice today so that His Lordship can mark it to the appropriate bench tomorrow (sic)," the notice further stated.

Politicking Over Outage

Congress leader Manish Tewari took to Twitter to slam the Chandigarh administration and urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to help restore normalcy at the earliest.

"Dear @AmitShah ji, Chandigarh has been without electricity for 36 hours. There is chaos & anarchy. All Essential Services are at a standstill. @ChandigarhAdmn has miserably failed to address the situation. Chandigarh is a Union Territory. Kindly intervene (sic)," he tweeted.

Sanyukt Samaj Morcha spokesperson Ravneet Singh Brar attended the strike on Tuesday and questioned why the department was being privatised despite profits.

(With inputs from ANI, IANS, The Indian Express, and Hindustan Times.)