Electricity contract employees lay siege to Collectorate

Ongole: The Prakasam district unit of Andhra Pradesh Contract Employees Joint Action Committee laid siege to the district Collectorate on Monday, demanding that the government respond on their demands.

The electricity contract employees had been on strike for the last 14 days and indefinite hunger strike for the second day. They were demanding equal salary for the equal work as per the Supreme Court orders, cancel piece rate for billers, make the payments directly to the employees instead of to the agencies. To get the attention of the government, eight workers continued the hunger strike for the second day.

The members from trade unions CITU, AITUC, INTUC, YSRTU, IFTU, AIFTU and VRAs association extended their support to the electricity workers and joined them in the agitation. They organised a rally from the Collectorate to Vidyut Bhavan and then to Collectorate and laid siege to the collector office complex. They sat in protest at the two gates of the building for more than an hour. The police dragged them away from the place.