The Andhra Pradesh government offered to sign the tripartite agreement with all the unions in the State Electricity Board(SEB). It promised that the existing service conditions and emoluments of the staff will not be affected in the restructuring of the Board.
The government also offered to give the agreement the necessary legal status since the restructuring would result in the closure of one of the signatories- the electricity board.
The suggestion for such an agreement was made by a cabinet sub committee and was approved by the cabinet yesterday evening. An Intuc backed union with a sizable following in the Board- has agreed to sign the agreement.
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Finance minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting said all the other unions which were members of the joint action council are free to sign the tripartite agreement.
He denied that the government move was aimed at dividing the workers.
The Intuc-backed union was earlier a part of the joint action committee which had given notice for a two-day strike on August 18 and 19. Raju added that the agreement had not been signed as yet. We are finalising the terms of the agreement after which, if the terms are acceptable, the unions subscribing to it will sign. During its two-hour deliberations yesterday and a brief discussion on Monday, the cabinet reviewed the entire gamut of the power sector including restructuring and the strike notice.
The minister said that the cabinet thought that restructuring was inevitable if energy was to reach the masses.
We need a massive investment, between Rs 50,000 and Rs 55,000 crore, in the power sector in the next five years, if the shortage is to be done away with. Without reforms, this can not be achieved, he reiterated.
He said the government had already drawn up a contingency plan to maintain the essential utility services if the proposed strike happens.
He did not disclose the details of the governments plan but said it hoped that the joint action committee will call off the strike and sign the tripartite agreement.
It is learnt that apart from asking the army to stand by and beefing up security at all vital power installations, the cabinet decided to seek additional power from the National Thermal Power Corporation and also seek their engineers to man some of the Boards installations.