Chandigarh blackout: Power dept employees withdraw protest; electricity restored

After facing a blackout of over 36 hours, the residents of Chandigarh got relief as the power department employees have now withdrawn their strike. The administration of the union territory (UT) said that electricity has been restored in most of the areas.

"Power Department employees have rejoined their duties. Power supply has been restored in most of the areas. The Administration has been in touch with the employees over their various issues," said Dharam Pal, Adviser to UT Administrator.

Employees of the electricity department, under the banner of UT Powermen Union, went on a strike on Monday night against the administration's move to privatise the electricity department.

The protesting employees claimed that if the electricity department was privatised, their service conditions would change and it also could lead to a rise in power tariffs.

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Lt Gn Dr SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), had said that the power outage impacted telecom towers and disrupted mobile connectivity.

Harried residents of Chandigarh blamed the city administration for remaining a mute spectator, leaving them in lurch as the power outages crippled the city.

The Chandigarh administration, on Tuesday evening, invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act, banning strikes by the electricity department employees for six months.

The outage since Monday night forced government hospitals in the UT to reschedule elective surgeries, besides adversely affecting residential, industrial and commercial areas in the city.

While online classes were affected in the city, there was also chaos on roads with traffic lights at many intersections remaining non-functional.

Water supply was also hit at some places because of disruption in electricity supply.

Industrial unit owners pegged huge losses due to power shutdown.