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Nikhila Pant Dhawan
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, January 19
Employees of the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant today staged a protest against the state government and the thermal plant authorities for issuing transfer letters of 109 employees working with the plant.
Blaming the government for the decision, the employees assembled outside the main gate of the thermal plant.
The protesters demanded that the transfer orders be cancelled and that the thermal plant be started again so that the employees don’t have to be transferred to other plants.
Elaborating on the demands, Jaswinder Singh Brar, leader of the GNDTP Employees Taalmel Committee, said, “About a month ago, 109 regular employees of the thermal plant were given transfer order. They were told that they were being transferred to Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant in Lehra Mohabbat, but their relieving orders were not issued. The relieving orders were handed out to them yesterday.”
He said the employees didn’t want to be transferred to other plants and demanded that GNDTP be made operational.
Raising slogans against the state government, the protesting employees argued that the workers, both regular and contractual, of the plant had been staying in Bathinda for the past several decades now and relocating to a new place would not be viable for them in terms of finances and also the academic and professional lives of their children.
“Despite prolonged protests, the state government is adamant on keeping the GNDTP shut completely and to close down two units of the Ropar thermal plant. Instead of reviewing the lop-sided power purchase agreements that the SAD-BJP government signed with private power producers, the state government is honouring those agreements and displacing a large number of families,” Brar added.