JAMMU: Power Development Department Employees Union (PDDEU) has decided to go on pen down strike from Thursday i.e. July 8, protesting against the order of the Chief Engineer JPDCL for entering of meter reading through e-utility JPDCL application.
This was disclosed today by Taran Gupta (president PDDEU) while addressing a press conference. Expressing resentment over the order of the Chief Engineer, he said the employees presently working as a meter reader are not able to enter the meter reading through e-utility application without any training and most of the employees are even unable to operate smart phone. Gupta said the employees presently working as Meter Reader belongs to different cadres and are not so sound technically to handle smart phones and e-utility application. He said the age profile of such employees is such that they cannot handle the software leading to failure of uploading the correct pictures of installed meters and non-compliance of such instructions will call for action against them and they will be subjected to mental harassment.
He said the Government should provide handsets to the employees after proper training and see whether they are able to use it properly or not before putting them on compliance. Stating that the meter reading will require internet data usage and such usage charges will have to be borne by employees. Gupta said that the daily wager employees cannot bear this burden. He demanded at least Rs 500 per month be provided to each employee, who has given the job of meter reading.
Other present in the conference were Anil Singh Slathia (president, Lineman & Workers Union), Kulbhushan Singh (senior vice president, PDDEU), Deepak Sharma (general secretary, PDDEU), Shashi Kumar (president, PDDEU Kathua), Balbir Singh (president, PDDEU Rajouri), Shahbaz Manhas (president, PDDEU Poonch), Arjun Singh (president, PDDEU Udhampur), Ashok Kumar (president, PDDEU Doda) and Raj Kumar (president PDDEU Reasi).
