Major power outages in Chandigarh as employees go on strike
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Feb, 2022 02:29 PM
Chandigarh, Feb 22 (IANS) Many residential and industrial parts of the city faced major power outages as employees of the Electricity Department went on a three-day strike from Monday night in protest against the privatisation of the department.
Most of the places have been facing snapping of power since midnight.
Even elective surgeries at the Government Medical College Hospital in Sector 32 (GMCH 32) have been postponed.
"Most of the Industrial Area Phase I and II witnessed blackouts since Monday night. Officers are showing helplessness in restoring power. Hope they arrive at some solution for the next two days," said Chamber of Chandigarh Industries President Naveen Manglani.
Officials told IANS that the situation may remain the same for two days more as 1,000 employees began a 72-hour strike on Monday night.
Residents claimed that three helpline numbers set up for registering the complaints have not been responding to the calls.
Chandigarh Adviser Dharam Pal told the media they will investigate the reasons behind the power disruption. "Action will be taken against those responsible," he added.
UT Powermen Union President Gopal Dutt Joshi blamed the winds for the disruption of power in Chandigarh.
"We have not disrupted the electricity supply, but we are on strike. Employees hired from neighbouring Punjab and Haryana probably are not able to detect the fault," he added.
In his address in the Assembly's special session to mark the commemoration of 400th Prakash Purb of Guru Tegh Bahadur, he stressed that the Sikh faith is distinguished by the tradition of martyrdom to uphold principles and righteousness given to "us by our great Gurus".
A total of 40.8 per cent people have shown satisfaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the five states going to the polls next year, while 41.3 per cent showed dissatisfaction with him, as per the ABP-CVOTER-IANS BATTLE FOR THE STATES - WAVE 1.
According to the ABP-CVOTER-IANS BATTLE FOR THE STATES - WAVE 1, the goodwill of the Union government remains the same except in Punjab, which is up against the Centre over the three farm laws.
The survey found that overall, 13.3 per cent said the 'country is moving forward but not my life', 29.3 per cent said the 'country is moving forward and my life too', while 5 per cent said that 'life is improving but the country is in poor state'.
A day earlier, Customs officials had recovered 495 grams of gold valued at Rs 24.14 lakh from a passenger on his arrival from Dubai. The gold was concealed in various items like a blender, facial cream box, and sandals. A case for smuggling of gold was registered. Further investigation is in progress, an official said.
The survey, conducted in the five poll-bound states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, revealed that about 51 per cent respondents in Punjab are not satisfied at all with work of the MLA of their respective areas.
