Ranchi, Dec. 5: Employees of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB), which is supposed to be disbundled this month, today got to hear from the chief minister what they wanted to.

Chief minister Arjun Munda, who returned from the US yesterday, assured the JSEB staff and the officers? co-ordination committee members that his government would take up the liability of all the JSEB employees.

The board employees, who have been opposing the decision to disband the electricity board, have been demanding that all staff be declared government servants and that the government be held liable for their salaries, pre- and post-retirement benefits.

The employees had expressed fears that it will be difficult for them to procure post-retirement benefits from the new holding companies.

Munda, who also holds the energy portfolio, claimed state would also study the report, being compiled by the Centre on the splitting of other power boards in the country, before taking the plunge.

In a meeting that lasted for over two hours, a number of intricate issues, regarding the board?s division into four units also came up for discussion.

The chief minister also promised the employees that the state would ask the Centre to further extend the deadline of December 9, fixed earlier for splitting the board.

Representatives of the employees? unions will now be actively consulted before giving a final shape to the draft of the JSEB division, Munda added.

The members of the coordination committee, which had called off a proposed strike from December 6, seemed buoyant after the meeting.

?It is for the first time that our demands were sincerely heard. The assurance from the chief minister comes at a time when many of our union members were adamant about moving ahead with a strike. We have accepted the ground reality that the JSEB has to be split. Once we have been assured that we will be government liabilities, we will co-operate,? said the co-ordination committee convener M.P. Yadav.

Munda?s intervention finally brought to an end a month-long ?drama? over repeated calls for power strike. The state cabinet had earlier approved of disbundling the electricity board on November 14.