 Early times Report
JAMMU, June 4: Pradesh Youth Congress today staged protest against the privatization of power and water sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
Led by Uday Bhanu Chib, president PYC J&K, the activists assembled outside the Congress Headquarters in Jammu and raised slogans against the BJP led Government at the Centre.
Chib said the Congress opposed the privatisation of electricity distribution as it would increase per unit cost of electricity for consumers, affecting poor families at a time when people have already suffered economically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said thousands of people working in the private sector and business class had lost livelihood and the proposal of the government to bring in private players was not a wise decision.
“Congress has been demanding free power and electricity supply until the lockdown period ends completely. The monthly tariff should also be waived until the pandemic is contained.
The Youth Congress has warned to intensify the agitation if the decision is not taken back by the UT administration.
Chib said it was estimated that about 30,000 employees would be affected by the decision of the government after the re-organisation of erstwhile Power Development Department (PDD) and the effect on economically weaker sections would be huge.
“Such move of the Government not only will allow the private sector to intervene in the department’s functioning but also put the jobs of PDD employees at stake,” he said, adding that Government should take stakeholders in confidence before taking such big decision.
He asked the Government to immediately shelve this corporatization as this is against the interests of employees, daily wagers, need based employees who are rendering their services for the last more than 20 years to the department.
Others who were present in the protest includes Ajaz Choudhary Vp JkPYC, Ricky Dalotra , Sahil Langeh and Nimrandeep Singh Gen Secretaries JKPYC, Latish Sharma, Barinder Partap, Ashwani Choudhary, Diveyansh Jamwal Secretaries JKPYC, Neeraj Choudhary District President Jammu (R) , Rahul Tandon Working District President Jammu(U), Anirudh Swainey AYC President Jammu west, Gotam and Karun VP AYC
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