72-hour strike of MSEDCL ends within 17-hour

-Various parts of the city experience outages

-No electricity leaves mobile battery dead, household equipment switched off

Aurangabad: The 72-hour strike of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) which began on Tuesday midnight against the privatization of power companies, was called off around 5 pm on Wednesday. Various parts of the city experienced outages. In all, 90 percent of the employees participated in the strike.

The MSEDCL employees, engineers and officials of the action committee started a 72-hour strike from midnight on Tuesday for various demands including opposition to privatization of electricity companies. Even before the strike started, the power supply in some areas was disrupted. The MSEDCL tried to keep the power supply operational with the help of few employees, contractual and trainee employees.

Meanwhile, a large number of employees participating in the strike were gathered at Millcorner. Members of various organizations including BL Wankhede, PV Pathade, Avinash Chavan, Rajendra Rathod, Dadarao Waghmode, Walmik Nikam, Vinay Ghanbahadar, Kamlakar Dandge and Sanjay Khade were present.

No privatization assurance

General secretary of Maharashtra power workers federation Arun Pivle said, the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured that there will be no privatization of power companies. Positive attitude towards giving permanent jobs to contractual employees. So the strike was called off.

What was the situation in the city

-The electricity supply in Baijipura was switched off at 2 pm. The citizens called the MSEDCL, but no response was received. Electricity did not come till 4:30 pm.

- Power supply was interrupted at Jaibhimnagar, Town Hall at 9.30 am. Even at 3:30 pm, the supply was not resumed. Citizens said that the battery of the mobile got dead, while homemakers were not able to do their household work.

- Ajabnagar, Telephone Bhawan area experienced an outage at 2 pm. Fortunately, power supply was restored within an hour.

- Power went off in the Kanchanwadi area around 11.30 am. Chintamani Colony lost power around 2 pm.

- Power supply in Millcorner, Bhoiwada area was interrupted at 12 pm. Power supply was restored at 6 pm.