Srinagar: Divisional Commissioner Jammu has requested the Indian Army engineering wing (MES) to assist the civil government in the restoration of electricity after a dialogue with the Power Development Department employees has reportedly failed who are on strike since midnight Friday in Jammu Kashmir.
The electricity distribution work because of this strike has affected common people's life across Jammu Kashmir it’s left hundreds of consumers across Jammu and Kashmir to reel under darkness as the employees have suspended all the works till their demands are fulfilled.
Those crises had mostly hit Jammu province and some areas of some districts in Kashmir. But in Jammu, hundreds of people are under darkness for the last two days and today it forced the Jammu administration to call army engineers for help for the restoration of electricity.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Raghav Langer had requested Indian army GOC 9crops and GOC 16crops who are incharge of Jammu province. The letter read,
“ It is brought to your kind notice that due to a strike by Electricity Department personnel in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, essential services have been severely affected in the Jammu region. We would like to hereby requisition the Indian army to assist in restoration of said essential services by provisioning manpower to man critical electricity stations and water supply sources,”
Accepting the government request army has agreed to provide the help to Civil administration. The government has now deployed teams of Military Engineering Services (MES) on a number of power receiving stations across the Jammu zone for restoration of electricity in the areas.
Many political leaders taking dig to LG government have criticised the move and said that it’s a total failure of the Administration. National Conference Vice President and former Jammu Kashmir chief minister wrote on his Twitter handle "The army has been called to operate the power infrastructure in Jammu division of J&K. There no bigger admission of failure for a civilian administration than to call upon the army, it means a total breakdown of governance has been accepted by the J&K government."
Earlier in the day, the discussions with the representatives of the striking employees failed to persuade them to return to their duties. Around 20 thousand PDD employees from engineers to linemen are on strike in Jammu Kashmir since midnight of Friday.
Those employees are on protest in all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir with the main protest dharna being staged at Jammu and Kashmir.
The protest is against the government's move to merge the J&K Power Development Department into the Power Grid Corporation of India and the handing over of the assets to private companies.
