Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, May 23: The employees of Power House of Suryachakra Power Corporation Limited (SPCL), Andaman and Nicobar Islands today staged a major protest against the management for not paying them salary for more than one month by shutting down two operational engines this morning.
According to details the protest began at 8.00 am this morning during which nearly all 52 staffs attached to the power house shut down the DG Sets and sat infront of the Gate demanding immediate release of salary.
Earlier the protest was scheduled on 12 May 2017 but after getting assurance from Secretary Power that the management will release salary to all employees by 22 May the protest was postponed.
However as out of 70 days pending salary when the management paid only partial salary for 30 days the employees sat on protest this morning.
The Suryachakra Power Corporation Limited (SPCL) is supplying power to Andaman and Nicobar Administration as Independent Power Producers and has a contract till 2018 April.
Meanwhile for not producing required power the Administration has imposed a penalty of the SPCP of nearly Rs. 2.1 crore and to make sure that the amount is paid before April 2018, the Administration is presently deducting entire monthly payment of SPCL which is around 30 lakhs.
“As company is not receiving any payment from Administration since March, we were unable to pay any amount to the employees. We had asked the Administration to release some amount so that atleast we could pay the salary of employees,” said Mr. Biji George, the Manager of SPCL in Andaman.
Today the protest began at around 8.00 am and by 9.00 am the Deputy Commissioner of South Andaman, Mr. Udit Rai Prakash reached the spot and had a meeting with workers and management.
During the meeting the Deputy Commissioner assured that the Administration will release salary amount of employees that too directly to the employees, so that functioning of SPCL power house is not affected.
It was also assured that in coming months also the Administration will release salary amount to all the employees directly, after which the protest was called off at 10.00 am.
Presently major power for Andaman’s South Andaman region is produced by Independent Power Producers. Suryachakra Power Corporation which has 20 MW power DG Sets is presently yielding hardly 10 MW power because of engine failures, causing present power crisis.
As per electricity department, presently, the Govt. of India as well as the Administration of the UT of A&N Islands have decided to phase out DG Sets completely, hence no new proposal is there to add more DG sets in these Islands.
However, for long term solution, the Administration is in a process of establishing a Gas based Power Plant of 50 MW which will be set up at Hope Town. Apart from this, there is also a proposal for establishing 15 MW Power Plant having a Dual Fuel Engine generator at Phoenix Bay Power House Complex under Grant-in Aid by Japan International Cooperation Agency. Both these power plants will however be established during next 3-4 years.
Meanwhile, to cope up with the growing power demand and to meet the present power demand, the Electricity Department has proposed for Short term Procurement of Power through hiring of DG Sets of the order of 10 MW and 05 MW during the current Financial Year till any big Power plant is established.
