Electricity Board staff strike tomorrow

Nothing of that sort will happen, the official said.A joint meeting of leaders of various political parties held under the leadership of PCC president A V Subramanian condemned the privatisation plan.

Puducherry, Jan 31 (PTI): Engineers and staff of the Department of Electricity here on Monday said they would go on strike on Tuesday (February 1) to protest against the move of the Central and the Puducherry governments to privatise the power sector.

A spokesperson of the association of the power sector staff told reporters today that privatisation would affect everyone, mostly farmers. ''We joined work as government staff and will retire as government employees. We resist the move to privatise distribution of power,'' the spokesperson said Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader V Narayanasamy had said the Chief Minister N Rangasamy should write to the Centre and oppose the privatisation plan. Superintending engineer Shanmugham, however, asked people not to think that privatisation would lead to hike in tariff and that farmers would be deprived of the benefits they enjoy now. ''Nothing of that sort will happen,'' the official said.

A joint meeting of leaders of various political parties held under the leadership of PCC president A V Subramanian condemned the privatisation plan. The parties that took part in the meeting were Congress, DMK, CPI, CPI (Marxist), VCK and CPI (Marxist-Leninist).