Employees on indefinite power strike could face the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) even as senior officials felt that 'doors are always open for talks'.
'We have recommended to the state government that Esma be invoked, as electricity comes under the ambit of essential services,' South Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (SBPDCL) managing director Palka Sahni said.
Asked whether Esma can be imposed against the employees on contract, Sahni said the act is invoked on services and not on the employees - whether regular or on contract.
Sahni was accompanied by managing director of North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd and Bihar State Power Transmission Company Ltd Balamurugan D. and Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd chairman-cum-managing director's OSD Keshav Ranjan.
The main demand of the staff is regularisation of services of around 1,571 employees on contract belonging to the Vidyut Karmi Sanyukta Sangharsh Morcha, an umbrella of two unions - Bihar State Electricity Employees' Association and Bihar Power Workers' Union.
Asked about the demand for regularisation of their services, Sahni said: 'The state government takes decisions on policy matters and this case of employees on contract is a policy decision also.'
Sahni, however, said: 'Our doors are open for everybody... Let's not get into probing question. We are sitting here and ready for talks.... Our main motto is to restore normality across the state as soon as possible so that consumers cannot face any difficulty, especially when board exams for Intermediate students started on Wednesday.'
Sahni said the city did not have any impact of the strike. She, however, admitted that power supply was disrupted in 34 (numbers of) 33KV feeders of the SBPDCL and 48(numbers of) 33KV feeders of the NBPDCL because of strike in the morning (on Wednesday) but the power supply was restored in 29 and 36 feeders of 33KV of SBPDCL and NBPDCL, respectively, and the supply would be restored in the remaining feeders soon.
Balamurugan said all the 98 grid sub-stations of the state were working well.
