Power ministry urges states to organise vaccination camps for electricity sector employees

The Ministry of Power has urged states to organize mass COVID-19 vaccination camps for power sector employees on priority in coordination with electricity utilities and their health departments, industry body AIPEF said.

The Ministry of Power has urged states to organize mass COVID-19 vaccination camps for power sector employees on priority in coordination with electricity utilities and their health departments, industry body AIPEF said. The Union power secretary on Monday wrote a letter to all chief secretaries of states and administrators of union territories in this regard, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) said in a statement. AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta said the federation had written to the Prime Minister and the power minister on April 18 requesting that all the power sector engineers and employees should be treated as frontline workers amid the pandemic.

The functioning of hospitals and testing laboratories is largely dependent on round-the-clock electricity supply, and power engineers and the technical staff of discoms play a major role in the fight against COVID-19.

Gupta further said the services of power sector employees, who ensure that power remains on during the pandemic, have gone unnoticed and taken for granted.

Now, the power ministry has at least acknowledged the role of power sector engineers and employees in the pandemic, he added. Electricity sector personnel in generation, transmission and distribution have put their best foot forward in ensuring the continuous flow of power in the national grid, and homes remain lit up and all the emergency services continue uninterrupted, the Union power secretary said in the letter. He requested the states and UTs to arrange and facilitate a special vaccination drive for power sector employees.