PATNA: Taking serious note of over 14,000 employees of the Bihar State Electricity Board going on a strike plunging the State into a power and water crisis, the Patna High Court on Tuesday asked the union leaders to call off the stir and appear in person today.

A full Bench, comprising Chief Justice J N Bhatt and Justices Chandramauli Kumar Prasad and S K Sinha, passed the order for issuing notices to 14 unions of the BSEB while hearing a PIL filed by the Lawyers' Association of the court.

However, a defiant convenor of the coordination committee of power workers, officers and engineers, B L Yadav, said that they would not pay heed to the court directive and, if need be, continue the strike beyond 6 a.m. today.

The association in its PIL had requested the court to issue a directive to the striking employees to restore power supply immediately and declare the powermen's strike illegal under the Essential Services Maintenance Act.

The matter would come up for hearing today. About 14,000 employees of the BSEB went on a 24-hour strike from 6 a.m. on Tuesday to protest against the Government's decision to restructure the board.

Bihar Energy Minister Brijendra Prasad Yadav told the State Legislature that the Government was only implementing the Centre's policy decision as the State would lose about Rs.300 crore annually meant for rural electrification if it did not reorganise the board and constitute separate companies for generation, distribution and transmission.- PTI

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