RAISING VOICES: Contract workers of the Andhra Pradesh Transco and Andhra Pradesh Genco protesting in front of the Vidyut Soudha in Hyderabad on Thursday, demanding regularisation of their jobs. - PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: A massive gathering of contract linemen laid a siege to Vidyut Soudha, headquarters of Transco and Genco, on Thursday demanding regularisation of service.

It was organised by the United Electricity Employees' Union (UEEU), an affiliate of Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

Traffic on the busy Khairatabad-Punjagutta road went haywire for more than an hour as hundreds of agitators squatted on the road, holding up long lines of vehicles on either end.

Ignoring policemen's plea to leave, they raised `anti-Government' slogans and tried to gatecrash into the premises.

At least 500 of them were taken into custody and bundled into waiting vans, which took them to Goshamahal, Nampally and Punjagutta police stations.

They were later released on personal bonds.

Normal traffic could be restored around 1 p.m. when the agitators dispersed after a delegation was allowed inside to meet senior officials. Earlier on Wednesday night, the police arrested CITU State president R. Sudha Bhaskar and UEEU leaders forcing the union to end its hunger strike at Sundarayya Vignana Kendra.

However, nearly 7,000 junior linemen from different corners the State converged at Vidyut Soudha in the morning, taking the police and officials by surprise. Union leaders said that about 20,000 contract linemen, who were on Transco rolls, were being shifted to the four distribution companies.

Main complaint

Their complaint is that the Transco/discoms have issued a notification to recruit to fill 7,114 vacancies of junior linemen instead of considering them for absorption.

Officials, however, say relaxations have been provided to recruit contract linemen, too.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail